System and method for measuring and quantizing document quality

ABSTRACT

Text, images, and/or graphics of electronic documents should be organized and laid out in a two-dimensional format for presentation to the viewer. The best such layout depends upon the content present, the creator&#39;s intent, the output device, and the viewer&#39;s interests. To analyze the qualitative nature of the layout in quantifiable terms, the electronic document is measure using various quantifiable factors; such as, balance, uniformity, white space management, alignment, consistency, legibility, etc.; that impact a qualitative nature of a document. Such quantifiable factors are then used to quantize the aesthetics, ease of use, eye-catching ability, interest, communicability, comfort, and convenience of the document.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/881,792, filed on Jun. 30, 2004. Thisapplication claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. §120, from co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/881,792, filed on Jun. 30, 2004. U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/881,792, filed on Jun. 30, 2004 claimedpriority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/491,043, filed on Jul. 30, 2003, and from U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/491,042, filed on Jul. 30,2003. This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/491,043, filed on Jul. 30,2003, and from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/491,042,filed on Jul. 30, 2003. The entire contents of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/491,043, and U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 60/491,042, are hereby incorporated by reference. The entirecontent of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/881,792, filed on Jun.30, 2004, is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention generally relates to the field of document layout,design, and analysis and, more particularly, to methods whichquantitatively measure a document's quality based on characteristicsinherent in the document itself.

When documents are created, many decisions must be made as to style,content, layout, and the like. The text, images, and graphics must beorganized and laid out in a two-dimensional format with the intention ofproviding a presentation to the viewer which will capture and preferablymaintain their attention for the time sufficient to get the intendedmessage across. Different style options are available for the variouscontent elements and choices must be made. The best choices for styleand layout depend upon content, intent, viewer interests, etc. In orderto tell if a set of choices made as to the look and feel of the finalversion of the document were good or bad, one might request feedbackfrom a set of viewers after viewing the document and compile thefeedback into something meaningful from which the document's creators ordevelopers can make alterations, changes, or other improvements. Thiscycle repeats until the document's owners are satisfied that the finalversion achieves the intended result.

Factors that contribute to the quality and effectiveness of layout andstyle decisions for a document are the handling of groups of contentelements as style and layout choices affect groups of content. A groupis a collection of content elements. Group membership is a property ofthe logical structure of the document. The neighborhood of groups can beconsidered a layout property. While layout structure often matches thelogical structure, there is no requirement that it do so.

Preferably, one would like to have a quantitative measure of variousvalue properties of the document (measures of the document “goodness”)based on properties inherent in the document itself. In this manner thedocument itself provides a level of quantitative feedback. For instance,one property that developer's would like to be able to measure would behow easy it is to use a document. A measure for the ease of use of adocument can be used in evaluating or making document design decisions.

One aspect of the ease of use of a document is one's ability to tellwhich elements belong to a group and which do not. The style and layoutdecisions that are made in the presentation of a document can affect thedegree of group identity that it conveys. In evaluating a document'sdesign for its ease of use, it is useful to have a measure of the degreeof group identity. Considerations for ease-of-use with respect to groupsinclude spatial coherence, spatial separation, alignment separation,heading separation, background separation, and/or style separation.Measures for various characteristics of content, feature, and the likecould be weighted by intent, relevance, and other parameters and thesecould then be combined to obtain one or more overall measures for thedocument itself. If one had a method for evaluating properties inherentin the document itself then such a measure could be used during thedocument development process to help determine optimal presentation.

An aspect of the ease of use of a document is its searchability.Searchability can be defined as the degree to which the documentstructurally supports the finding of a desired content element. Adocument with high searchability provides aids that help in findingdesired content. In general, a document with high searchability measureis easier to use because it is easy to locate the portion of thedocument containing the information of interest.

Another aspect of a document's ease of use is the document's degree ofdistinguishability. The distinguishability of content can be defined asthe ability to identify one particular content element from anothercontent element within the document. Distinguishability is important inestablishing the context for the information disclosed by the element.It can reduce confusion about what that element is and to what group orsetting it belongs. It can also aid in locating a desired element. Thedistinguishability of the document elements is therefore a contributingfactor to the ease of use of the document.

Another property that would be desirable to be able to quantitativelymeasure is the ability of the document to hold the viewer's attentionand interest. While much of the document's ease of use depends upon theactual content and its relevance to the viewer, there can also be acontribution from the style with which that content is presented. If ameasure of the effect of style decisions on ease of use could be definedit could be used in determining a measure of optimal presentation.

Documents can present content in ways that make it easier to locateindividual items. This can be referred to as ‘locatability’. A way todistinguish one content object from another object is to evaluate thetarget object's locatability, i.e., how easy it is to find an objectwithin the document. This is a little different from distinguishability,which tells how well an item can be differentiated from its neighbors.Structural aids such as layout of tables or bullet lists help thedocument viewer to locate objects. Presenting content in a table allowsits location to be identified by row or column. The presence of headingsfor the rows and columns can further increase the ease of locatingitems. Presenting content items in a list introduces an ordering thataids in locating them, and the use of list bullets or item numbers aidsfurther. Separability and distinguishability contribute to thelocatability of an object.

Measures for various aspects of content, features, and the like could beweighted by intent, relevance, and other parameters and these could thenbe combined to obtain one or more overall measures for the documentitself. If one had a method for evaluating such properties inherent inthe document itself then such a measure could be used during thedocument development process to help determine optimal presentation.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide a methodology to measure thequality of a document in a quantifiable way. Moreover, it is desirableto provide a quantifiable measurement of quality which is useable inevaluating the document and improving its quality so as to add value tothe information being conveyed through the document.

SUMMARY

A first aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized aesthetic value for the document based on a predeterminedcombining function, the predetermined combining function combining thequantized measured predetermined set of characteristics, the quantizedaesthetic value being a measure of quality of the document.

A second aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized aesthetic value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetic combining function, the predetermined aesthetic combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized ease of usevalue for the document based on a predetermined ease of use combiningfunction, the predetermined ease of use combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; generates a quantized eye-catching ability value forthe document based on a predetermined eye-catching ability combiningfunction, the predetermined eye-catching ability combining functioncombining a predetermined subset of the quantized measured predeterminedset of characteristics; generates a quantized interest value for thedocument based on a predetermined interest combining function, thepredetermined interest combining function combining a predeterminedsubset of the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics;generates a quantized convenience value for the document based on apredetermined convenience combining function, the predeterminedconvenience combining function combining a predetermined subset of thequantized measured predetermined set of characteristics; generates aquantized comfort value for the document based on a predeterminedcomfort combining function, the predetermined comfort combining functioncombining a predetermined subset of the quantized measured predeterminedset of characteristics; generates a quantized communicability value forthe document based on a predetermined communicability combiningfunction, the predetermined communicability combining function combininga predetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized aesthetic value, the generated quantized ease of use value,the generated quantized eye-catching ability value, the generatedquantized interest value, the generated quantized convenience value, thegenerated quantized comfort value, and the generated quantizedcommunicability value.

A third aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized ease of use value for the document based on a predeterminedcombining function, the predetermined combining function combining thequantized measured predetermined set of characteristics, the quantizedease of use value being a measure of quality of the document.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized eye-catching ability value for the document based on apredetermined combining function, the predetermined combining functioncombining the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics,the quantized eye-catching ability value being a measure of quality ofthe document.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized interest value for the document based on a predeterminedcombining function, the predetermined combining function combining thequantized measured predetermined set of characteristics, the quantizedinterest value being a measure of quality of the document.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized comfort value for the document based on a predeterminedcombining function, the predetermined combining function combining thequantized measured predetermined set of characteristics, the quantizedcomfort value being a measure of quality of the document.

A seventh aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized convenience value for the document based on a predeterminedcombining function, the predetermined combining function combining thequantized measured predetermined set of characteristics, the quantizedconvenience value being a measure of quality of the document.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized communicability value for the document based on apredetermined combining function, the predetermined combining functioncombining the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics,the quantized communicability value being a measure of quality of thedocument.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized aesthetic value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetic combining function, the predetermined aesthetic combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized ease of usevalue for the document based on a predetermined ease of use combiningfunction, the predetermined ease of use combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized aesthetic value and the generated quantized ease of use value.

A tenth aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized aesthetic value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetic combining function, the predetermined aesthetic combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized ease of usevalue for the document based on a predetermined ease of use combiningfunction, the predetermined ease of use combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; generates a quantized eye-catching ability value forthe document based on a predetermined eye-catching ability combiningfunction, the predetermined eye-catching ability combining functioncombining a predetermined subset of the quantized measured predeterminedset of characteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized aesthetic value, the generated quantized ease of use value,and the generated quantized eye-catching ability value.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized eye-catching ability value for the document based on apredetermined eye-catching ability combining function, the predeterminedeye-catching ability combining function combining a predetermined subsetof the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics;generates a quantized ease of use value for the document based on apredetermined ease of use combining function, the predetermined ease ofuse combining function combining a predetermined subset of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of characteristics; and generates a quantizedquality value for the document based on a predetermined qualitycombining function, the predetermined quality combining functioncombining the generated quantized eye-catching ability value and thegenerated quantized ease of use value.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized interest value for the document based on a predeterminedinterest combining function, the predetermined eye-catching abilitycombining function combining a predetermined subset of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantizedease of use value for the document based on a predetermined ease of usecombining function, the predetermined ease of use combining functioncombining a predetermined subset of the quantized measured predeterminedset of characteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized interest value and the generated quantized ease of use value.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized eye-catching ability value for the document based on apredetermined eye-catching ability combining function, the predeterminedeye-catching ability combining function combining a predetermined subsetof the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics;generates a quantized interest value for the document based on apredetermined interest combining function, the predetermined interestcombining function combining a predetermined subset of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of characteristics; and generates a quantizedquality value for the document based on a predetermined qualitycombining function, the predetermined quality combining functioncombining the generated quantized eye-catching ability value and thegenerated quantized interest value.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized eye-catching ability value for the document based on apredetermined eye-catching ability combining function, the predeterminedeye-catching ability combining function combining a predetermined subsetof the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics;generates a quantized comfort value for the document based on apredetermined comfort combining function, the predetermined comfortcombining function combining a predetermined subset of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of characteristics; and generates a quantizedquality value for the document based on a predetermined qualitycombining function, the predetermined quality combining functioncombining the generated quantized eye-catching ability value and thegenerated quantized comfort value.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized aesthetics value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetics combining function, the predetermined aesthetics combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized interestvalue for the document based on a predetermined interest combiningfunction, the predetermined interest combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized aesthetics value and the generated quantized interest value.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized interest value for the document based on a predeterminedinterest combining function, the predetermined interest combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized ease of usevalue for the document based on a predetermined ease of use combiningfunction, the predetermined ease of use combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized interest value and the generated quantized ease of use value.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized aesthetics value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetics combining function, the predetermined aesthetics combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantizedcommunicability value for the document based on a predeterminedcommunicability combining function, the predetermined communicabilitycombining function combining a predetermined subset of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of characteristics; and generates a quantizedquality value for the document based on a predetermined qualitycombining function, the predetermined quality combining functioncombining the generated quantized aesthetics value and the generatedquantized communicability value.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized communicability value for the document based on apredetermined communicability combining function, the predeterminedcommunicability combining function combining a predetermined subset ofthe quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics; generates aquantized ease of use value for the document based on a predeterminedease of use combining function, the predetermined ease of use combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; and generates a quantized qualityvalue for the document based on a predetermined quality combiningfunction, the predetermined quality combining function combining thegenerated quantized communicability value and the generated quantizedease of use value.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized aesthetics value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetics combining function, the predetermined aesthetics combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized comfortvalue for the document based on a predetermined comfort combiningfunction, the predetermined communicability combining function combininga predetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized aesthetics value and the generated quantized comfort value.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; generates aquantized comfort value for the document based on a predeterminedcomfort combining function, the predetermined comfort combining functioncombining a predetermined subset of the quantized measured predeterminedset of characteristics; generates a quantized ease of use value for thedocument based on a predetermined ease of use combining function, thepredetermined ease of use combining function combining a predeterminedsubset of the quantized measured predetermined set of characteristics;and generates a quantized quality value for the document based on apredetermined quality combining function, the predetermined qualitycombining function combining the generated quantized comfort value andthe generated quantized ease of use value.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized aesthetics value for the document based on a predeterminedaesthetics combining function, the predetermined aesthetics combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized conveniencevalue for the document based on a predetermined convenience combiningfunction, the predetermined convenience combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized aesthetics value and the generated quantized conveniencevalue.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for quantifying ameasure of quality of a document. The method measures a predeterminedset of characteristics of the document; quantizes the measuredpredetermined set of characteristics of the document; and generates aquantized convenience value for the document based on a predeterminedconvenience combining function, the predetermined convenience combiningfunction combining a predetermined subset of the quantized measuredpredetermined set of characteristics; generates a quantized ease of usevalue for the document based on a predetermined ease of use combiningfunction, the predetermined ease of use combining function combining apredetermined subset of the quantized measured predetermined set ofcharacteristics; and generates a quantized quality value for thedocument based on a predetermined quality combining function, thepredetermined quality combining function combining the generatedquantized convenience value and the generated quantized ease of usevalue.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may take form in various components andarrangements of components, and in various steps and arrangements ofsteps. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating a preferredembodiment and are not to be construed as limiting the presentinvention, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an architectural layout forquantifiably measuring document quality according to the concepts of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringdocument quality according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringdocument aesthetics according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 4 to 7 illustrate examples of visual balance according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate examples of quantifiably measuring visualbalance according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringvisual balance according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate examples of non-uniform distribution ofcontent objects over a page according to the concepts of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 13 to 15 illustrate examples of white space fraction according tothe concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of trapped white space according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 7 to 20 illustrate examples of quantifiably measuring trappedwhite space according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 21 illustrates an example of defining the trapped white spaceaccording to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 22 to 24 illustrate examples of alignment according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 25 illustrates an example of quantifiably measuring and graphicallyplotting alignment with respect to a left edge according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 26 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringdocument alignment according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 27 to 30 illustrate examples of document regularity according tothe concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 31 illustrates an example of page security according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 32 illustrates an example of page proportionality according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 33 illustrates an example of separability according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 34 illustrates an example of group identity according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 35 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringgroup ease of use according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 36 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringeffective separation according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 37 to 41 illustrate examples of separation according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 42 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringeffective distinguishability according to the concepts of the presentinvention;

FIG. 43 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringtotal distinguishability according to the concepts of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 44 to 46 illustrate examples of distinguishability according tothe concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 47 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringdirect locatability according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 48 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringmember locatability according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 49 and 50 illustrate examples of locatability according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 51 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringtotal locatability according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 52 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringgroup identity according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 53 and 54 illustrate examples of coherence according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 55 illustrates examples of group boundary area according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 56 and 57 illustrate examples of style according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 58 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuring eyecatching ability according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 59 illustrates an example of a color gamut according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 60 illustrates an example of a hue angle according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 61 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringinterest according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 62 illustrates an example of variety according to the concepts ofthe present invention;

FIG. 63 illustrates an example of change rate according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 64 illustrates an example of graphic fraction according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 65 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringcommunicability according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 66 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringlegibility according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 67 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringdecipherability according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 68 illustrates an example of line retrace according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 69 illustrates an example of line separation according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 70 to 73 illustrate examples of quadding according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIG. 74 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringtechnical level according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 75 to 77 illustrate examples of image balance according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 78 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuring easeof progression according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 79 illustrates an example of consistency of scan according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 80 illustrates an example of consistency of order according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 81 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuring easeof navigation according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 82 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringcomfort according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 83 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringneatness according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 84 and 85 illustrate examples of neatness according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIG. 86 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringintimidation according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 87 illustrates an example of intimidation according to the conceptsof the present invention;

FIGS. 88 and 89 illustrate examples of luminance according to theconcepts of the present invention;

FIGS. 90 and 91 illustrate examples of size according to the concepts ofthe present invention;

FIG. 92 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringconvenience according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 93 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringconsistency of position according to the concepts of the presentinvention;

FIG. 94 illustrates a conceptual circuit for quantifiably measuringconsistency according to the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 95 illustrates a definable window for quantifiably measuring thevarious quality characteristics of a document according to the conceptsof the present invention; and

FIG. 96 illustrates color dissonance as a function of hue difference.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will be described in connection with preferredembodiments; however, it will be understood that there is no intent tolimit the present invention to the embodiments described herein. On thecontrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, andequivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention, as defined by the appended claims.

For a general understanding of the present invention, reference is madeto the drawings. In the drawings, like reference have been usedthroughout to designate identical or equivalent elements. It is alsonoted that the various drawings illustrating the present invention arenot drawn to scale and that certain regions may have been purposelydrawn disproportionately so that the features and concepts of thepresent invention could be properly illustrated.

The present invention is directed to various methods for quantifyingvarious document properties to assist document developers in determiningdocument quality. Quality can have several competing aspects and theoverall quality can depend not only on the absolute properties of thedocument, but also on the relative importance of these properties to thebeholder. One aspect or class of document quality is its aesthetics,which is its beauty, the degree to which pleasure can be derived fromits appearance. Often this property is manifested in the degree ofdispleasure generated by an ugly layout.

Another aspect or class contributing to the quality of a document is theeffectiveness with which it communicates information to the user.Documents are vessels of information, and the ease at which the viewercan gather and understand the information can be an important factor inhow well the document does its job.

A third aspect or class that contributes to the quality of a document isits ease of use. A factor that contributes to the ease of use is howconvenient the document is, that is, can it be used with a minimum ofeffort. A second factor contributing overall ease of use is contentgrouping. Information often has some logical organization and documentscan reflect this organization by grouping the content. The effectivenesswith which the document coveys this grouping and enables the viewer tocapitalize on it contributes to the ease of use.

A fourth aspect or class that enters into document quality is the degreeto which the user is comfortable with it. Documents that create anxietyare generally not as desirable as those that the viewer finds soothingand familiar.

A fifth aspect or class that is an important contributor to the qualityof some documents is the degree to which they can catch the eye of theviewer. Advertisements for example, strive to capture the attention andnot to be easily overlooked.

A sixth aspect or class that is similar is the ability for the documentto maintain interest. It is one thing to capture the attention, butanother to hold it and to avoid boredom as the document is used.

A seventh aspect or class of quality can be the economy of the document,both to the creator and to the viewer. If the other contributors toquality are the same, then a lower cost version of a document isgenerally considered better than a more expensive one. While otherfactors may also contribute to document quality, the measuring of theseseven aspects or classes provides a good basis for evaluating documentquality.

The aspects or classes listed as contributing to document quality (withthe exception of economy) are usually considered soft and ill-definedconcepts; however, these properties can be quantified. The method formeasuring and quantifying these attributes is to first identify documentfeatures that contribute to the property. Quantifiable measures of theindividual features are then devised. And finally, the individualfeature values are combined to form an overall score for the moreabstract property.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an architectural layout forquantifiably measuring document quality according to the concepts of thepresent invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the quantization of adocument's quality can be carried out in by a system architecture thatincludes a memory 91, a document processor circuit 92, microprocessor90, user interface 94, and a display 93. The memory 91 may store forprocessing purposes a portion of a document, a page of the document, aportion of a page of a document, a document, or multiple documents.

The display 93 may display the document or portion thereof that is beingquantized with respect to quality. The display 93 may also display thevarious options that a user can choose though the user interface 94 withrespect to the classes that the user wishes to quantize or the variousparameters that a user can choose though the user interface 94, whichare to be measured within the chosen quantization class.

The quantization architecture of FIG. 1 further includes variouscircuits for measuring/quantizing various aspects or classes of documentquality. These circuits include aesthetics quantizer 10, ease of usequantizer 20, eye catching ability quantizer 30, interest quantizer 40,communicability quantizer 50, comfort quantizer 60, conveniencequantizer 70, and economy quantizer 75. Each of these (except theeconomy quantizer, for which measures and methods are well known) willbe discussed in more detail below.

On the other hand FIG. 2 illustrates a single quality quantizer orcombiner 80 that receives measured and/or calculated quantized valuesrepresenting aesthetics, ease of use, eye catching ability, interest,communicability, comfort, and/or convenience. Quality quantizer orcombiner 80 processes these values based upon a predetermined algorithmso as to generate a quality quantization value for the document orportion of the document being analyzed. If alternate or additionalmeasures of quality are considered, they would also be combined atcombiner 80.

Each value thereof is based on properties inherent in the documentitself. The values are individually combined into an overall value orscore for the document. Other methods for measuring, assigning, orotherwise associating a quantifiable value for document quality shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular methods putforth, but also in the much broader concept of determining a value fordocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each rule is definedto produce a value ranging between 0 and 1 such that 0 means low valueand 1 means high value. This enables quantized quality values to becalculated and combined to form the overall document quality measure.

If V_(i) is the value calculated for the i^(th) rule, the documentquality measure V_(Q) is formed as a function E of these contributionssuch that: V_(Q)=E(V₁, V₂, . . . V_(N)). The combining function E can beas simple as a weighted average of the contributions. However, becauseany bad contributor can ruin the document quality no matter how good theothers are, a linear combination is not preferred.

An alternative is: V_(Q)=(Σw_(i)(V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p). In a preferredembodiment, the w_(i) factors are weights that specify the relativeimportance of each rule and should sum to one. The exponent ‘p’introduces a non-linearity that can make one bad value overwhelm manygood ones. The larger the value of the exponent ‘p’ is, the greater thiseffect.

A further alternative is: V_(Q)=(Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p)−d. Thew_(i) factors are weights that specify the relative importance of eachrule and should sum to one. The exponent ‘p’ introduces a non-linearitythat can make one bad value overwhelm many good ones. The parameter d isa number slightly larger than 0. The larger the value of the exponent‘p’ is, the greater this effect.

Other combining functions are, for example, the product of thecontributions. If weighting of the contribution is desired, this can beachieved by: V_(Q)=ΠV_(i) ^(wi′)

It is noted that the illustrations show circuits or circuit for thequality quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

Aesthetics

For the case of document aesthetics, the methods herein are used togenerate quantifiable values for the contributing features of: balance,uniformity, white-space fraction, white-space free-flow, alignment,regularity, page security, and/or aspect ratio (optimalproportionality). As illustrated in FIG. 3, a combining circuit 10 (theaesthetics quantizer 10 of FIG. 1) receives measured and/or calculatedquantized values representing balance, uniformity, white-space fraction,white-space free-flow, alignment, regularity, page security, and/oraspect ratio (optimal proportionality) and processes these values basedupon a predetermined algorithm so as to generate an aestheticquantization value for the document or portion of the document beinganalyzed.

Each value thereof is based on properties inherent in the documentitself. The values are individually combined into an overall value orscore for the document. Other methods for measuring, assigning, orotherwise associating a quantifiable value for document quality shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular methods putforth, but also in the much broader concept of determining a value fordocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each rule is definedto produce a value ranging between 0 and 1 such that 0 means low valueand 1 means high value. This enables quantized quality values to becalculated and combined to form the overall document quality measure.

If V_(i) is the value calculated for the i^(th) rule, the documentquality measure V_(A) is formed as a function E of these contributionssuch that: V_(A)=E(V₁, V₂, . . . V_(N)). The combining function E can beas simple as a weighted average of the contributions. However, becauseany bad contributor can ruin the document quality no matter how good theothers are, a linear combination is not preferred.

An alternative is: V_(A)=(Σw_(i)(V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p). In a preferredembodiment, the w_(i) factors are weights that specify the relativeimportance of each rule and should sum to one. The exponent ‘p’introduces a non-linearity that can make one bad value overwhelm manygood ones. The larger the value of the exponent ‘p’ is, the greater thiseffect.

A further alternative is: V_(A)=(Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p)−d. Thew_(i) factors are weights that specify the relative importance of eachrule and should sum to one. The exponent ‘p’ introduces a non-linearitythat can make one bad value overwhelm many good ones. The parameter d isa number slightly larger than 0. The larger the value of the exponent‘p’ is, the greater this effect.

Other combining functions are, for example, the product of thecontributions. If weighting of the contribution is desired, this can beachieved by: V_(Q)=ΠV_(i) ^(wi′)

It is noted that the illustrations show circuits or circuit for theaesthetics quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, one of the parameters or factors used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's balance or balance in page layout.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there are at leasttwo primary ways of defining balance. There is an overall balance wherethe center of visual weight is at the visual center of a page of adocument; as illustrated by FIG. 5 with objects 110 on document 100having substantially a center of visual weight equal to a visual centerof a page of a document; and a left-right balance; as illustrated byFIGS. 6 and 7 with objects 110 on document 100 where the weight ofobject 110 on the left side of the page is matched by the weight ofobject 110 at the same vertical position on the right side of the page.Other definitions for balance are to be considered within the scope ofthe present invention.

The overall balance is calculated by determining the center of visualweight 102 of FIG. 4 and noting how much it differs from the visualcenter of the page 101 of FIG. 4. FIG. 8 provides a detail example ofdetermining the overall balance of a page of a document.

As illustrated in FIG. 8, if the visual weight of an object i (110 ofFIG. 8) is M_(i) (115 of FIG. 8) and the object's center is positionedat (x_(i), y_(i)), the center of visual weight for the page layout 116is at (x_(m), y_(m)) where x_(m)=(Σx_(i)M_(i))/(ΣM_(i)) andy_(m)=(Σy_(i)M_(i))/(ΣM_(i)) are the sums of all objects on the page.Objects 110, as used herein, may refer to paragraphs, pictures,graphics, etc.

If the visual center of the page 116 is at (x_(c), y_(c)) and themaximum x and y distances (117 shows the x distance) an object can befrom the visual center 102 are d_(x) and d_(y), a balance value can becalculated as:V_(OB)=1−[(((x_(m)−x_(c))/d_(x))²+((y_(m)−y_(c))/d_(y))²)/2]^(1/2).

Note that one can, in a similar way, compute the balance of subclassesof objects by considering only objects belonging to the subclasses. Forexample, one could compute the visual balance of all pictorial images onthe page, or the visual balance of all text blocks.

For left-right balance, the center of visual weight (118 of FIG. 9) forthe x component is calculated as given above. However, for the ycomponent, what is desired is that the left and right halves have thesame position, rather than the total being centered. This is achieved bycalculating the center of weight for the left side (118) as:y_(L)=(Σy_(i)M_(i))/(ΣM_(i)) where the sums are over the portions ofobjects 110 with x_(i)<x_(c). Similarly,y_(R)=(Σy_(i)M_(i))/(ΣM_(i))where the sums are over the portions ofobjects with x_(i)>x_(c).

If a content object spans both the left and right sides of the page, forthe purposes of this calculation, the object is divided along thevertical centerline of the page. The left and right divisions of theobject are then entered into the left and right sums, respectively. Ifthe page height is d_(h), a left-right balance value is:V_(LR)=1−[(((x_(m)−x_(c))/d_(x))²+((y_(L)−y_(R))/d_(h))²)/2]^(1/2). Itis noted that other definitions are possible.

One might, for example, raise these balance values to powers in order toexpress the idea that balance is non-linear. Ideally, one would performthe psychophysical experiments to measure human response to balance anddefine a function that matches that response.

The above expressions make use of the visual weight of an object. Tofirst order, this can be defined as the objects area times its opticaldensity. However, other psychological effects can also be included.Examples include color carrying more weight than gray; round shapescarrying more weight than rectangular, and positioning at the top of thepage giving more weight than at the bottom.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, balance is defined with respect to the visualcenter of the page 101. The visual center 101 lies halfway between theleft and right edges of the page, but it is not halfway between the topand bottom. Typically, the visual center 101 is taken to be offset atwentieth of the page height towards the top from the geometric center102.

The balance, as illustrated in FIG. 10, is considered a combination oftwo approaches described above. In FIG. 10, the quantized overallbalance value is derived by a combining of the overall balance and theleft-right balance using a balance quantizer or combiner circuit 11.

One approach is:V_(bl)=1−[w_(ob)(1−V_(ob))^(−q)+w_(LR)(1−V_(LR))^(−q)]^(−1/q). Theweights w_(ob) and W_(LR) give the relative importance of the twobalance approaches and should sum to 1. If either of the balancemeasures is near 1 (good), the overall result is also near 1. Theexponent ‘q’ determines how strong this behavior is.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the balancequantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

As illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's uniformity.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is preferred tohave content objects 110 distributed uniformly over a page 100, asillustrated in FIG. 12, and not clumped together, as illustrated in FIG.11. However, for other values, such as attention grabbing, it may bebeneficial to have clustered and even unbalanced positioning. Uniformityis preferred.

Non-uniformity is defined herein as the variance of the visual density.For a portion of a page, a visual density is determined by it's thevisual weight of the objects contained within the portion, divided byit's the portion's area such that: D_(i)=ΣM_(j)/A_(i) where the sum isover objects j contained in page portion i. Densities are preferablyscaled to range between 0 and 1. A rescale may be needed if visualweight includes factors in addition to the optical density that alterthe range of values. An average page density can also be defined as thesum of the visual weights for all objects on the page divided by theimageable area of the page.

The imageable area Ap_(i) is typically the area of the page excludingmargins. D_(AV)=ΣM_(i)/Ap_(i). A non-uniformity value is calculated bydividing the imageable area into a small number of portions andcomparing the visual density for portions to the average page density.

A non-uniformity value can be calculated as the difference between thevisual density for the portion of the page and the average page density,which is squared and weighted by the portion's area. Subtracting 1 thisgives a uniformity value. In other words, a non-uniformity value van bedefined as V_(NU)=1−(Σ(D_(i)−D_(av))²A_(i))/ΣA_(i).

The average page density can also be calculated for each pageindividually, or an overall average page density can be determined fromthe visual weight of all objects on portions of all pages and the areaof all pages.

An alternative to calculating a single non-uniformity value for thedocument directly is to calculate non-uniformity values for individualpages and then combines the page values by some means such as anaverage, or by a non-linear scheme that might, for example, yield a lowresult if any page has a low value. Other uniformity measures arepossible, for example, the true variance in the densities can becalculated and used to give non-uniformity. Alternatively, a function isconstructed from measured human responses to differing uniformities.

As illustrated in FIGS. 13 to 15, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's white space fraction.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a good page designis one with white space (including margins) totaling about half of thetotal page area. The non-white space area can be estimated by totalingthe areas of the content objects.

In FIG. 13, the white space fraction, the amount of area not associatedwith an object 110 on page 100, totals more than half of the imageablearea and thus it is undesirable. In FIG. 14, the white space fraction,the amount of area not associated with an object 110 on page 100, totalsless than half of the imageable area and thus it is also undesirable.Lastly, in FIG. 15, the white space fraction, the amount of area notassociated with an object 110 on page 100, totals about half of theimageable area and thus it is optimal.

The total object area 110 can be scaled by the total page area A_(p) andthe difference between this value and the desired 50% can be found.Squaring the difference to give a positive number produces a measure ofhow much the layout differs from the 50% rule. Scaling by 4 to get anumber ranging between 0 and 1 and then subtracting this from 1 givesthe white space fraction quantization value. Thus:V_(ws)=1−4((ΣA_(i)/A_(p))−0.5)².

Other measures of the effect of the white space fraction on documentaesthetics and on document quality are envisioned herein and should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing white space fractions.

As illustrated in FIGS. 16 to 21, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's trapped white space.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is desired thatthere should not be any large blocks of white space trapped, in themiddle of the page, by content. The white space should always beconnected to the margins.

To quantize this class of trapped white space, an efficient method ofdetecting trapped white space is illustrated in FIGS. 16 to 21 anddiscussed in more detail below.

The class of trapped white space is primarily concerned with relativelylarge blocks of white space. One way that efficiency, as used herein,can be improved is by performing a trapped white space analysis at acoarse resolution. The approach taken is to determine the area of allwhite space that can be accessed directly from the margins. This areathen gets added to the area of the content objects (110 of FIG. 16) andcompared to the area of the page. Any difference becomes the amount oftrapped white space (120 of FIG. 16).

To achieve this, four profiles (FIGS. 17-20) of white space areaccessible from the four margins of the document constructed. Theseprofiles are preferably stored in arrays at the coarse resolution. Callthe arrays, for example: TopProf, BottomProf, LeftProf and RightProf.Elements of the TopProf and BottomProf arrays are initialized to thepage height, while the LeftProf and RightProf arrays are initialized tothe page width.

Next all content objects 110 are stepped through and for each, theirleft (FIG. 17), right (FIG. 18), top (FIG. 19), and bottom (FIG. 20)boundary positions 121, 122, 123, and 124, respectively, are found. Thisinformation is used to update the profile arrays.

For points from the left to right boundary, the value stored in theTopProf array is compared to the top boundary and the array value isreplaced with the top value if top is smaller. The difference betweenthe bottom boundary and the page height is compared to the BottomProfarray value and updated with the smaller result. This is captured in thefollowing: for ( x = L; x < R; x++)  {  if (T < TopProf[x])  TopProf[x]= T;  if (H − B < BottomProf[x])  BottomProf[x] = H − B};  }

Here L, R, T, B contain the left, right, top, and bottom boundarypositions of the content object respectively, and H is the page height.Similar calculations update the LeftProf and RightProf arrays for thecontent object.

Total white space area (125 of FIG. 21) connected to the page edges canbe found by examining the entire page and comparing and checking eachpoint position against the profile arrays. A sum of all points that liebetween a page edge and the corresponding profile boundary is computed.Summing all points in this manner avoids double counting of areas whereprofiles overlap. Pseudo-code to do the computation follows: Freeflow =0; for (x = 0; x < W; x++)   { for (y = 0; y < H; y++)     {   if (x <LeftProf[y] || W − x < RightProf[y]    || y < TopProf[x] || H − y <BottomProf[x])       Freeflow = Freeflow + pixelArea;  } }

If the total area covered by the content objects (being careful not todouble count areas where objects overlap) is ContentArea and area of thepage is: PageArea=W*H, the white space free-flow value becomes:V_(WF)=(Freeflow+ContentArea)/PageArea.

A white space free-flow measure for the overall document can be definedas an average of the white space free-flow for the individual pages.Non-linear combinations are also possible such as taking the root of theaverage of powers of the page values.

Other measures of the effect of trapped white space on aesthetics and ondocument quality are envisioned herein and should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredresponses to differing degrees of trapped white space.

As illustrated in FIGS. 22 to 24, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's alignment.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is desirable forthe content objects to be displayed in an aligned pattern. The alignmentmight be for all left edges to have the same x value. Alternatively, itmight be for all objects to share the same centerline. If right edgesare aligned as well as left ones, this is better still. Similarly, rowsof objects should be vertically aligned.

FIG. 22 illustrates objects 110 on a page 100 that are poorly aligned.On the other hand, FIG. 23 illustrates objects 110 on a page 100 thatare well aligned.

A method for calculating an alignment measure, which can be applied toobject's left edges, right edges or horizontal centerlines, isdisclosed. The method also applies to tops, bottoms, and verticalcenters. Each application yields a different alignment measure. Theseare then all combined for an overall alignment measure.

The alignment measure can be applied to all content objects, oralternatively, can be applied to a restricted set of objects such as allobjects belonging to a logical group in the document structure.Alignment can also be restricted to objects of a given type, such as allparagraphs, or all pictorial images.

Each alignment metric may be built on a page basis and provides aquantifiable indication of how well different components on the page arealigned. With this approach the individual page alignments can becombined to form an alignment measure for the entire document.Alternatively, alignment values can be calculated using document objectsacross multiple pages. When components are aligned well, then the numbergiven by the metric is one. When components are not aligned well, themetric gives a number smaller than one. Advantageously, changing theposition of the components on the page changes this number in a smoothand continuous way.

To achieve this, first, a histogram of edge (or center) position (FIG.25) is created reflecting the distance objects 110 on page 100 are froman edge, in the illustration of FIG. 24, the edge is the left edge. Thehistogram is preferably created at lower resolutions than the actualpositioning. This reduces alignment sensitivity as well as saving onmemory and computation requirements.

If the histogram array is called EdgeCount, and if the edge position foran object is x, and the resolution reduction factor is b, for eachcontent object EdgeCount[b*x]+=1. Strong alignment will result in mostpositions contributing to the same histogram element. If one isinterested in the alignment of the left edges of objects, the histogramis filled using left-edge positions. Alignments for right, top, orbottom edges and center positions are intended to be calculatedsimilarly.

The alignment measure depends on the distances between neighboringentries in the histogram. The closer together the entries are, thehigher the score. This dependence must be non-linear. Otherwise, anymoving of an object closer to its neighbor is canceled by the moving ofthe object away from its neighbor on the other side. The non-linearfunction used for entries separated by a distance z is: A/(A+z) where Ais a constant that controls how fast values fall away from 1 as thedistance between entries increases.

If two edges were aligned and the distance separating them was z=0, thisyields 1. This provides a contribution for the strength of the entriesat that position.

In other words, if a position has n edges contributing, n−1 separationsexist between edges of distance zero. As such, there should be acontribution of n−1 from an entry count of n as well as the contributionfrom the separations between neighboring entry positions. If the totalnumber of components were NumberOfObjects, the maximum contribution, ifthey were all perfectly aligned, would be NumberOfObjects−1. Divide bythis value to normalize the score so that the final result rangesbetween 0 and 1.

The calculation of the alignment is described by the following: while(EdgeCount[i] is 0)  i = i + 1; align = EdgeCount[i] − 1; for (j = i+1;j < b*W; j++)  if (EdgeCount[j] is not 0)    { align = align +A/(A+j−i) + EdgeCount[j] − 1;  i = j;  }   align = align /(NumberOfObjects − 1);

The above applies to left edges, right edges and center positions tocalculate alignment measures referred to as: align_(L), align_(R), andalign_(C). The only difference is in which edge values fill theEdgeCount histogram array. The alignment measures for the edges andcenter are combined in a manner similar to that used to combine thepreviously discussed balance measures. Thus:align_(H)=1−(w_(L)(1−align_(L))^(−q)+w_(R)(1−align_(R))^(−q)+w_(C)(1−align_(C))^(−q))^(−1/q);where w_(L), w_(R), and w_(C), are weights of the relative importance ofeach of the three alignments and the exponent ‘q’ controls how stronglyone alignment dominates.

In a similar way, alignment measures are calculated for the top, bottom,and vertically centered positions, referred to herein as: align_(T),align_(B), and align_(M). These are combined into a vertical alignmentmeasure align_(V). Advantageously, one could combine the horizontal andvertical alignments herewith even though both have already contributedto a measure of document quality. Thus: V_(alH)=align_(H), andV_(alV)=align_(V). An overall alignment measure for a page can bedefined as a weighted sum of the horizontal and vertical contributions:V_(al)=w_(V)V_(alV)+(1−w_(V))V_(alH).

The alignment, as illustrated in FIG. 26, is considered a combination ofthe left alignment, right alignment, top alignment, bottom alignment,vertical center alignment, and horizontal center alignment valuesdescribed above. In FIG. 26, the quantized alignment value is derived bya combining of the left alignment, right alignment, top alignment,bottom alignment, vertical center alignment, and horizontal centeralignment values using an alignment quantizer or combiner circuit 12.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the alignmentquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

An overall document alignment can be formed as a combination ofalignment values determined for separate pages. Alternatively, anoverall document alignment can be calculated by considering all contentobjects at once without separating them according to page. When valuesfrom separate pages are combined, an average may be used as thecombining mechanism, but alternatives are possible. A method ofcombining that yields a low result if any of the pages have low valuesmay be preferred. Techniques such as taking the reciprocal root of theaverage of reciprocal powers are an example of such a combining method.

Other measures of the effect of alignment on document aesthetics and ondocument quality are envisioned herein and should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredresponses to differing degrees of alignment.

As illustrated in FIGS. 27 to 30, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's regularity.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when multiplealignment positions occur, it is best to space those alignment positionsin a regular fashion. In other words, it is better if rows and columnsof a table have relatively the same heights and widths.

FIG. 27 illustrates an example of low position regularity of objects 110on page 100, while FIG. 28 illustrates an example of high positionregularity of objects 110 on page 100. FIG. 29 illustrates an example oflow spacing regularity of objects 110 on page 100, while FIG. 30illustrates an example of high spacing regularity of objects 110 on page100.

One way to measure regularity is to identify the neighbors of eachobject (110) and then consider the distance between corresponding edgesof the object and its neighbors (e.g. the left edge of the object andthe left edge of its neighbors). But because the identification ofneighbors can be expensive, a simpler approximation is often preferred.

If it were assumed that the document has been designed such that objectsare strongly aligned, there would be a sharp peak in a histogram of thedistances between alignment positions. The alignment positions are thepeaks identified in the alignment histogram described above. Thisprocessing can be extended to capture distances between alignment peaksand to store them in a new histogram referred to herein as: SepCount if(EdgeCount [0] > EdgeCount [1])   {    peakCount++;    SepCount[1]++;   prevPeak = 0;   } else    prevPeak = −1; for (i = 1; i < b*W − 1;i++)  if (EdgeCount [i−1] < EdgeCount [i] &&  EdgeCount [i+1] <EdgeCount [i])   {     peakCount++;     SepCount[i − prevPeak]++;    prevPeak = i;   } if (EdgeCount [b*W−1] > EdgeCount [b*W−2])   {    peakCount++;    SepCount[i − prevPeak]++;   }

Once the SepCount histogram has been created, process it in the same wayas the EdgeCount histogram was processed for alignment with theexception of dividing by peakCount instead of NumberOfObjects. while(SepCount [i] is 0)    i = i + 1; preg = SepCount [i] − 1; for (j = i+1;j < b*W; j++)  if (SepCount [j] is not 0)   {    preg = preg +A/(A+j−i) + SepCount [j] − 1;    i = j;  } preg = preg / (peakCount −1);

This provides a measure of regularity, but it will be dependent on whichalignment measure is used in the extraction of alignment positionseparations. While all six alignments can be used and the resultscombined, the left alignment is preferred for determining horizontalregularity and the top alignment is preferred for finding verticalregularity.

Advantageously, these regularity measures can be combined into thedocument quality measure as: V_(RH) and V_(RV) where V_(RH)=pregcalculated when EdgeCount is filled with left edge positions andV_(RV)=preg calculated when EdgeCount is filled with top edge position.An overall position regularity value can be defined as a weighted sum ofthe horizontal and vertical contributions.

Other measures of the effect of position regularity on documentaesthetics and on document quality are envisioned herein and should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured responses to differing position regularities.

A uniform separation between objects can also be calculated to determinedocument quality. This is a measure of spacing regularity preferablycalculated in a manner similar to alignment and positional regularity.However, in this instance, the array of data values corresponding toEdgeCount, contains the histogram of spacing values between objects.

To determine spacing values for horizontal spacing regularity for eachobject, first determine the closest object (if any) that lies to theright and which overlaps in the vertical direction. The spacing thenbecomes the distance from the right edge of the current object and theleft edge of that object's neighbor. A similar calculation determinesseparations for the vertical direction.

If performance is an issue, an approximation of spacing can be createdwithout the cost of identifying object neighbors by examining arrays ofedge positions (as were generated for the alignment calculation). Forhorizontal spacing, step through the array of right edge positions. Foreach position determine the first left edge to the right of thislocation from the left edge array. The separation value becomes thedistance between the right and left edge positions. To account for thepossibility that more than one object may have an edge at theselocations, enter into the histogram the product of the count of edgesfrom the right and left edge histograms at these locations. The sum ofthese products is then used to normalize the final result instead ofNumberOfObjects as in the alignment calculation. The approximateseparation count is then given by: for (i = 0; i < b*W − 1; i++)      if(LeftEdgeCount [i] != 0) {    j = i + 1;    while (RightEdgeCount[j] ==0)    {     j = j + 1;    }  totalSepCount += LeftEdgeCount[i] *RightEdgeCount[j];  SpacSepCount[j − i] += LeftEdgeCount[i] *RightEdgeCount[j];     }

Here LeftEdgeCount and RightEdgeCount contain the values of theEdgeCount array when filled with left-edge values and right-edge valuesrespectively. For vertical separations the calculation is analogous withthe use of top and bottom edge values. The calculation of the spatialregularity measure would follow as: while (SpacSepCount [i] is 0)    i =i + 1; sreg = SpacSepCount [i] − 1; for (j = i+1; j < b*W; j++)     if(SpacSepCount [j] is not 0)  {   sreg = sreg + A/(A+j−i) + SpacSepCount[j] − 1;    i = j;  } sreg = sreg / (totalSepCount − 1);

An approximation of the vertical spacing histogram is determined in thesame manner using the top and bottom edge-position arrays.Advantageously, regularity measures can be combined into the documentquality measure as: V_(SH) and V_(SV) where V_(SH)=sreg whenSpacSepCount is computed from left and right edges, while V_(SV)=sregwhen SpacSepCount is computed from top and bottom edges. An overallseparation regularity measure can be defined as the weighted sum of thehorizontal and vertical contributions.

Other measures of the effect of spacing regularity on documentaesthetics and on document quality are envisioned herein and should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured responses to differing spacing regularities.

As illustrated in FIG. 31, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's page security.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is preferred thatsmall objects 110 not be positioned at or near the edge of a page 100 asthey appear insecure and could fall off. This is particularly true ofobjects such as page numbers placed outside of the margins.

To quantify the page security of an object, the distance from its centerto each of the page edges is determined. The distance may be weighted bywhich edge is used since an object may appear less secure near a bottomedge than at the top edge. The minimum weighted-distance should bepreserved.

If the object center is at (x_(i), y_(i)) and the page size is definedby W×H, for each object, calculate: ps_(i)=min(S_(L) x_(i), s_(T) y_(i),s_(R)(W−x_(i)), s_(B)(H−y_(i))); where s_(L), s_(T), s_(R), and s_(B)are the left, top right and bottom edge weights. An overall pagesecurity value is defined as the minimum of all the object values forthe page PS=min(ps_(i)). Most objects will appear fine when there issome threshold distance T beyond which one should get a value of 1 forthe property. To adjust the measure for this behavior, calculate:V_(ps)=min(1, PS*T⁻¹).

Other measures of the effect of object position on document aestheticsand on document quality are envisioned herein and should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured responses to differing positions e.g., insecurity of objectspositioned near page edges.

As illustrated in FIG. 32, another parameter or factor used indetermining aesthetics is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's optimal proportionality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, certain proportionsare more pleasing than others. An aspect ratio between width and heightof R=2/(1+√5)=0.618 . . . is often ideal. The ratio of width and heightof the content on a page is determined and compared to this ratio.

For width and height, the bounding box of the content (1101, 1102, 1103,1104, and 1105) is preferred. The bounding box is calculated as follows:Step through the content objects and find the minimum left edge, themaximum right edge, and (measuring top down) the minimum top edge andmaximum bottom edge. The width is the difference between the maximumright edge and minimum left edge. The height is the difference betweenthe minimum top edge and maximum bottom edge.

Next, determine whether the width or height is the smaller and dividethe smaller by the larger to get the aspect ratio A. The absolutedifference from the ideal ratio R and scale can be determined to get anumber between 0 and 1 as follows: Var=1−|A−R|/R.

In FIG. 32, object 1101 has a good proportionality or aspect ratio,while object 1102 has a poor proportionality or aspect ratio.

Other measures of the effect of aspect ratio on document aesthetics andon document quality are envisioned herein and should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function frommeasured human responses to differing aspect ratios.

Other quantifiable features that contribute to the aesthetics of adocument and thereby to the document quality are possible. Theparticular embodiments describe here are meant to illustrate how aquantifiable aesthetic measure can be constructed and how eitherdirectly, or through the aesthetics, they contribute to documentquality. Their identification should not rule out the use of otherfeatures as appropriate.

Ease of Use

For the case of document ease of use, the methods herein are used togenerate quantifiable values for the contributing features of:separability, distinguishability, locatablility, searchability, and/orgroup identity. As illustrated in FIG. 35, a combining circuit 20 (theease of use quantizer 20 of FIG. 1) receives measured and/or calculatedquantized values representing separability, distinguishability,locatablility, searchability, and/or group identity and processes thesevalues based upon a predetermined algorithm so as to generate an ease ofuse quantization value for the document or portion of the document beinganalyzed.

Each value thereof is based on properties inherent in the documentitself. The values are individually combined into an overall value orscore for the document. Other methods for measuring, assigning, orotherwise associating a quantifiable value for document quality shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular methods putforth, but also in the much broader concept of determining a value fordocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each rule is definedto produce a value ranging between 0 and 1 such that 0 means low valueand 1 means high value. This enables quantized quality values to becalculated and combined to form the overall document quality measure.

If V_(i) is the value calculated for the i^(th) rule, the documentquality measure V_(A) is formed as a function E of these contributionssuch that: V_(EU)=E(V₁, V₂, . . . V_(N)). The combining function E canbe as simple as a weighted average of the contributions. However,because any bad contributor can ruin the document quality no matter howgood the others are, a linear combination is not preferred.

An alternative is: V_(EU)=(Σw_(i)(V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p). In a preferredembodiment, the w_(i) factors are weights that specify the relativeimportance of each rule and should sum to one. The exponent ‘p’introduces a non-linearity that can make one bad value overwhelm manygood ones. The larger the value of the exponent ‘p’ is, the greater thiseffect.

A further alternative is: V_(EU)=(Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p)−d. Thew_(i) factors are weights that specify the relative importance of eachrule and should sum to one. The exponent ‘p’ introduces a non-linearitythat can make one bad value overwhelm many good ones. The parameter d isa number slightly larger than 0. The larger the value of the exponent‘p’ is, the greater this effect.

Other combining functions are, for example, the product of thecontributions. If weighting of the contribution is desired, this can beachieved by: V_(EU)=ΠV_(i) ^(wi′).

It is noted that the illustrations show circuits or circuit for theease-of-use quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

As with the measurement of aesthetics, the measurement of ease of userequires the identification of quantifiable features that contribute tothe ease of use. Examples of methods to measure and combine suchfeatures are provided.

The features first considered are those that relate to the logicalstructure of the document, that is, to the organization of the documentcontent into group. In evaluating document quality, content objects ofinterest need to be identified as to what kind of content these objectsare, (e.g., images, paragraphs, headings, titles, blocks, borders,lists, tables, etc.). This of course will be highly dependent upon thekind of document the document's creator or developer either envisions,or is creating, or has already created.

Once the document content of interest has been identified, content needsto be characterized, as illustrated in FIG. 33, as to how content isintended to be grouped such that content can be distinguished from othercontent, from other content groups, from other content group members(1104, 1105, 1106) or elements, and from neighboring content (1101,1102, 1103). This can be effectuated by parsing content objects ofinterest into a tree structure of content, as illustrated in FIG. 34,wherein nodes 135 of the content tree are content groups (i.e., lists,tables, etc.) and leaves of the branches 130 of the content tree arecontent elements (i.e., paragraphs, images, and the like). It should beunderstood that one skilled in this art would readily understand thecreating of content trees, branches, nodes, etc., along with how totraverse the tree preferably in a computer science context.

Once a content tree has been created, content which is neighboring thecontent object(s) of interest need to be identified. One procedure takesthe content tree and traverses up the tree and identifies neighboringbranches thereof. Another then moves down the content tree examiningelements on the identified neighboring branches. In such a manner,content neighboring the content of interest can be identified.

First a neighbor list associated with content group G is initialized toan empty list. The content tree is traversed upward to identify branchesneighboring content group G. The content tree is then traversed downwardsuch that elements of the identified content branches can be examined.Branches are pruned that are considered to exceed a predetermineddistance from the node of the group G. Only branches considered as‘nearby’ are recursively analyzed. Although the process described hereininvolves identifying neighbors N of group G, it should be understoodthat nothing requires group G to actually comprise a group of content asgroup G can be a single element (paragraphs, images, etc.) of content.

The procedure IsNeighbor(G,N) is used herein to ascertain whether or nota node N is within a threshold distance of content group G, such thatnode N is to be considered a neighbor N of group G. This can be readilyeffectuated by calculating a distance between group G and neighbor N andcomparing that distance to a threshold variable CloseEnough so as todetermine whether Distance(G,N)<CloseEnough.

Distance can be the distance between content borders or alternativelythe distance between content centers. With respect to the former, if thecontent centers of group G are (x_(G), y_(G)) and neighbor N are (x_(N),y_(N)) and the widths and heights of group G and neighbor N are (w_(G),h_(G)) and (w_(N), h_(N)) respectively, then distance can be readilycomputed by the relationship of: max(abs(x_(G)−x_(N))−(w_(G)+w_(N))/2,0)+max(abs(y_(G)−y_(N))−(h_(G)+h_(N))/2,0). More complex distancecalculations such as minimum Euclidean distance between corners can alsobe used.

The threshold CloseEnough can either be a constant or be adjustable withrespect to content size. One can use the square root of the area ofobject G to determine a threshold value such that:CloseEnough=(Area(G))^(1/2). This also can be scaled by factor S where Sis typically close to 1 such that: CloseEnough=S* (Area(G))^(1/2).

The methods provided for evaluating distance or determining thresholdare not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining a distance measure for content objects should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention; such that the presentinvention is directed to the much broader concept of using a measure ofdistance between content objects in the context of evaluating documentquality.

The following pseudo-code illustrates how the content tree can betraversed. It should be understood that pseudo-code provided herein isillustrative, and as such, is intended to be modified by one skilled inthe art of computer science and programming without undo experimentationto effectuate implementation hereof in one's own system. Note that groupG is the content currently under examination, C is a node, P is a node,and N is used as a convenience index to identify the node beingexamined. TraverseUp(G, C)  {   if node C is the root node then return/* done */   P = parent(C)   for each child node N of parent P    ifchild N is different from C then      TraverseDown(G, N)   TraverseUp(G,P)   return  } TraverseDown(G, N)  {   if IsNeighbor(G, N)     then addnode N to the list of neighbors of group G     otherwise return   ifnode N is not a leaf node    then for each child C of node N     TraverseDown(G, C)   return  }

The depth in the tree of neighbor node N relative to content group G canbe obtained by adding a depth d parameter wherein d+1 is passed in therecursive call to TraverseUp and wherein depth d−1 is passed in therecursive call to TraverseDown. The initial value of depth for d wouldbe zero, i.e., TraverseUp(G, G, 0). Depth can be stored along with otherinformation on the previously described list of neighbor nodes of groupG.

Once the document's content has been parsed and neighboring content hasbeen identified for all content objects of interest, various propertiesrespecting content separation can then be determined which will besubsequently used to quantify document quality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 36 to 41, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's separability.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a document's degreeof overall separability can be ascertained by determining the degree oftotal separability for the document's content objects of interestcontained therein. Individual measures for content object separationincludes: spatial separation (FIG. 37), alignment separation (FIG. 38),style separation (FIG. 39), background separation (FIG. 40), andinherent separation (FIG. 41), among others.

A combination of separation measures, as illustrated in FIG. 36, forcontent is then useful in evaluating the document content's degree ofeffective separation of content. Effective separation is useful inevaluating the document content's degree of total separation of content,which, in turn, is useful in evaluating the document's degree or measureof overall separation. Overall separation is subsequently used inassessing document quality.

More specifically, the effective separability, as illustrated in FIG.36, is considered a combination of the spatial separation, alignmentseparation, style separation, background separation, and/or inherentseparation. In FIG. 36, the quantized alignment value is derived by acombining of the spatial separation, alignment separation, styleseparation, background separation, and/or inherent separation using aneffective separability quantizer or combiner circuit 21.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the effectiveseparability quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

As illustrated in FIG. 37, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's spatial separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the spatialseparation (SpatialSep) for a group or element can be the minimum of theseparation distance between the group or element and each identifiedneighbors. Using the dimensions of the bounding boxes, (i.e., centerposition, width, and height) of the content under evaluation, spatialseparation can be distances between horizontal and vertical componentswith a floor of zero. This can be further normalized to yield a valuebetween 0 and 1 by scaling with a maximum separation factor, (e.g.,scaling by width (W_(p)) and height (H_(p)) of the page) such that:(max(abs(x_(G)−x_(N))−(w_(G)+w_(N))/2,0)/W_(p)+max(abs(y_(G)−y_(N))−(h_(G)+h_(N))/2,0)/H_(p))/2.

The particular method provided for evaluating spatial distances betweencontent objects are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods should be considered within the scope of thepresent invention, for example, a function of measured human responsesto differing spatial separations; such that the present invention isdirected to the much broader concept of using a measure of spatialseparation of content objects in a determination of total separabilityin the context of evaluating document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 38, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's alignment separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, alignmentseparation, as used herein, means that one or more positions of object Gon a particular page matches a corresponding position of neighboringcontent N. Alignment separation is how well content avoids havingcorresponding positional matches within a page. Using the left, right,top, bottom (x_(GL), x_(GR), y_(GT), y_(GB)) page position of group G(110) and the (x_(NL), x_(NR), y_(NT), y_(NB)) page position of neighborN (1101), alignment separation is the minimum of the absolutedifferences of their corresponding positions, given by:min(abs(x_(GL)−x_(NL)), abs(x_(GR)−x_(NR)), abs(y_(GT)−y_(NT)),abs(y_(GB)−y_(NB))).

Alignment separation can be further normalized to a value between 0 and1 by dividing by a maximum possible difference in positions (page widthW_(p) and page height H_(p)) of the document page upon which the contentresides as expressed by: min(abs(x_(GL)−x_(NL))/W_(p),abs(x_(GR)−x_(NR))/W_(p), abs(y_(GT)−y_(NT))/H_(p),abs(y_(GB)−y_(NB))/H_(p)).

Alternatively, alignment separation can be measured by the sum of thealignment separations between multiple edges as given by:min((abs(x_(GL)−x_(NL))+abs(x_(GR)−x_(NR)))/W_(p),(abs(y_(GT)−y_(NT))+abs(y_(GB)−y_(NB)))/H_(p)). Alternatively,min(max(abs(x_(GL)−x_(NL))/W_(p), abs(x_(GR)−x_(NR))/W_(p)),max(abs(y_(GT)−y_(NT))/H_(p), abs(y_(GB)−y_(NB))/H_(p))).

The methods for evaluating alignment and alignment separation herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods should be considered within the scope of the present invention,for example, a function of measured human responses to differingalignment separation amounts; such that the present invention isdirected to the much broader concept of using a measure of alignmentseparation of content objects in a determination of total separabilityin the context of evaluating document ease of use and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 39, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's style separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, style separation(StyleSep) is used herein to provide a means by which objects can befurther distinguished. To obtain the degree of style separation, contenttypes need to be compared against every other style type and a valueassigned for the amount of style separation therebetween. The assignmentof such a value would be made as a judgment call by the documentdeveloper. For example, one document developer may consider it easier todistinguish TEXT from an IMAGE than it is to distinguish a LIST from aTABLE. Thus, that developer would assign a much smaller style separationvalue for types LIST vs. TABLE because it is much more difficult todistinguish between these two types of content.

In other words, the degree of style separation is small. Whereas, withregard to the TEXT vs. IMAGE as previously mentioned, the developer mayconsider it much easier to distinguish between these two types ofcontent. Thus, separations in style is high so type TEXT vs. type IMAGEwould be assigned a high value in the table of style separations, e.g.,TypeSepTable, which is preferably multi-dimensional and indexed by type.

The table of style separation values (TypeSepTable) contains a value forall types vs. all other types. For instance, content type IMAGE would beassigned a style separation value against all other types of content(e.g., TEXT, IMAGE, GRAPHIC, LIST, TABLE, etc.). As mentioned, the IMAGEvs. TEXT types would have one value for their degree of styleseparation. The IMAGE vs. GRAPHIC types would have a value for theirrespective degree of style separation. All types would be stored in amanner, which renders the value for the degree of style separationbetween two content types readily retrievable.

Once the style separation table has been generated, the value for theseparation of style between content group object G and identifiedneighbor N is readily retrieved from the table of separation values by afunction, referred to herein as type 0, which returns a number forcontent type. The pre-determined value for the separation between twocontent types would be retrieved from the table of style separationvalues by the function's returning a value for type(G) and type(N). Inthis instance, StyleSep=TypeSepTable[type(G)][type(N)].

When the two objects are both the same type, then one can compare thestyle values of one object to the corresponding style value of theother. For each style value pair one can calculate a style difference.For numeric parameters such as font size, line spacing, the styledifference can be calculated as just the absolute difference of the sizevalues. For multidimensional values such as color, the style differencecan be the distance between the values. For enumerated values such asquadding, font family or font style one can use a two-dimensionallook-up table indexed by the enumerated values for the two objects toretrieve difference. An overall style separation difference becomes theweighted sum of the various style differences available for the objecttype. For example: StyleSep=Σw_(i) d_(i)(G, N); where the sum is overavailable style parameters i, and w_(i) is the weight of the i^(th)style parameter, and d_(i) is the difference measure for the i^(th)style parameter.

The particular methods for evaluating style separation herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining style separation should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing styles; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining styleseparation, but also in the much broader concept of using a measure ofstyle separation in a determination of content separability in thecontext of evaluating document ease of use and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 40, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's background separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, objects on differentcolor backgrounds can be considered separate and distinct. Thus,background separation can be thought of as the difference in backgrounds1102 of two objects (110 and 1101). If, for instance, background color1102 is a style parameter of the object G (1101) or one of itsancestors, the content tree is searched upward until the first objectwith a specified background is found. The following pseudocodeillustrates this. FindBackground(G) {  if G specifies a background color then return that color   otherwise    if G is the root of the contenttree     then return the default background color (e.g. white)   otherwise       return FindBackground( parent(G) ) }

If, on the other hand, backgrounds are content objects, such asrectangles that are members of the same group (or perhaps a parentgroup) as the object in question, another search has to be done. Thepseudocode is as follows: FindBackground(G, C) {  if C is the root ofthe content tree   then return the default background color (e.g. white) P = parent(C)  for each child K of P   if K is different from C and Kis a rectangle and K encloses G    then return the color of K  returnFindBackground(G, P) }

The test for K enclosing G can be performed, for example, using thebounding box for K and G to ensure that the corners of the bounding boxof G are within the corners of the K box.

Once the backgrounds for two objects have been determined, a differencemeasure can be derived. Differences in color can be determined using thedistance in a color space that strives for visual uniformity such asL*a*b* coordinates. Other color spaces can be used as well.

The measure of background separation should not be just distance betweencolors in color space because once the colors are sufficiently differentto easily tell apart, further differences between them does nothing toincrease separability. What is preferred is a function of distance thatis 1 for all values of color difference except those close to zero. Oneway to obtain this is by scaling color difference Dc by a large factorand then clamping the results to 1.

For example: BackgroundSep=min(s*Dc,1). An alternative is to take then^(th) root of the difference value to limit the color difference Dc tothe range 0 to 1. For example: BackgroundSep=Dc^(1/r). Here, the largerthe value of r is, the more closely the colors have to match before theyfail to provide background separation.

The particular methods for evaluating background separation herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining background separation should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing backgrounds; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method of computingbackground separation, but also in the much broader concept of using ameasure of background separation in a determination of contentseparability in the context of evaluating document ease of use anddocument quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 41, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's inherent separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, often features areconstructed into content objects. Such features are considered inherentto the object itself. An example is an object's border 1103 or anindented first line or other feature that inherently indicates aseparation from other objects. Spacing before the paragraph or after theparagraph that is different from the internal line spacing, can alsosignal a separation. Further, some separators only serve to distinguishon a single boundary, i.e., indicating separation at the top but not atthe sides.

As such, to calculate inherent separation, each of the four sides of theobject under scrutiny needs to be considered separately. For instance,suppose w_(i) is a weight that describes the relative importance of thei^(th) feature to the top boundary fTop_(i)(G). These weights should sumto 1. And, suppose a parameter P determines how strongly a successfulseparation feature overwhelms other features, and there is a constant cthat should be close to 1 but may be slightly larger to avoid divisionby 0. Then, inherent separation can be defined by:InherentSepTop=c−[Σw_(i)*(c−fTop_(i)(G))^(−p)]^(−1/P). Similarexpressions define the inherent separation for InherentSepBottom,InherentSepLeft, and InherentSepRight.

One of these InherentSep values may be more appropriate for neighbor Ndepending upon whether N is mostly above, below, left, or right ofobject G. For example, given: q1 = w_(G) * (y_(N) − y_(G)) + h_(G) *(x_(N) − x_(G)), and q2 = w_(G) * (y_(N) − y_(G)) − h_(G) * (x_(N) −x_(G)) then: if q1 > 0 then if q2 > 0 then   use InherentSepTopotherwise   use InherentSepRight otherwise if q2 > 0 then   useInherentSepLeft otherwise   use InherentSepBottom.

Note that neighbor N will also have an inherent separation. Thus, thecomplementary inherent separations from both object G and neighbor N canbe combined as well. For example, if neighbor N is substantially aboveobject G, then use the sum of InherentSepTop of G and InherentSepBottomof N. Alternatively, the maximum of the complementary inherentseparations from G and N can be used. The InherentSep from a neighbor isone of the top, bottom, left or right Inherent Separations as chosenabove.

The particular methods for evaluating inherent separation herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining inherent separation should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing inherent separation features; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofcomputing inherent separation, but also in the much broader concept ofusing a measure of inherent separation in a determination of contentseparability in the context of evaluating document ease of use anddocument quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 36, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's effective separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, contributions to themeasure of separability can be combined to form the content object'sdegree of Effective Separation (EffectiveSep) from a particular neighboris given by:EffectiveSep=c−[w_(x)*(c−SpatialSep)^(−p)+w_(a)*(c−AlignmentSep)^(−p)+w_(s)*(c−StyleSep)^(−p)+w_(b)*(c−BackgroundSep)^(−p)+w_(n)*(c−InherentSep)^(−p)]^(−1/p)where terms w_(x), w_(a), w_(s), w_(b) and w_(n) are weights that sumto 1. While other methods of combining the individual separationmeasures are possible, this has the property that if any of theseparation values between object G and neighbor N is close to 1, theEffective Separation will also be close to 1.

The particular method for evaluating effective separation herein isexemplary and not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methodsfor determining effective separation should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing separation devices; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining effective separation, but also in the much broader conceptof using a measure of effective separation of content in a determinationof content separability in the content of evaluating document ease ofuse and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, to obtain an overallmeasure of total separation, an object's total separation from allneighbors, a determination of the minimum of the effective separationsbetween object G, and all its neighbors has to be made.

In this embodiment, this means combining separation values for eachneighbor. Total separation can be given by:TotalSep=min_(i)(EffectiveSep_(i)); where EffectiveSep_(i) is theEffectiveSep value for the i^(th) neighbor, and the minimum is takenover all neighbors. Alternatives with average separations are alsoenvisioned. An averaging method that gives the greatest weight to theclosest distance can be defined by the reciprocal root of the sum ofreciprocal powers. For example:TotalSep=[(1/n)*Σ(c+EffectiveSepi)^(−p)]^(−1/p)−c. Here, n is the numberof neighbors, c is a small constant to guard against division by zero,and the power p determines how strongly small separations dominate. Ifan object has no neighbors then its TotalSep value should be 1.

The particular methods for evaluating total separation as providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining total separation should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the method of determining totalcontent separation but in the much broader concept of using a measure oftotal separation of document content in the evaluation of a document'squality.

An overall separability measure for a document is determined bycombining total separations for all document content objects and groups.This can be by a straight average. Although, any object or group with alow separability value may adversely impact the value for the entiredocument, and therefore, should be given a higher weight by combining asthe root of powers.

The particular methods for evaluating overall separability as providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining overall separability should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the method of determining overallseparability but also in the much broader concept of using a measure ofoverall separability of document content in the evaluation of adocument's ease of use and a document's quality.

Separability may vary with level in the content tree hierarchy in whichan object exists. An algorithm for computing separability by recursivelytraversing the content tree is provided herein which calculates aweighted average using weights w_(L) which vary with content's treelevel L. The following pseudocode is provided by way of example.Separability(G) {   if G is a leaf node     then return TotalSep(G)  otherwise     for each child C of G       call Separability(C) andfind the average of these values A    return w_(L) * TotalSep(G) + (1 −w_(L)) * A }

The above Separability( ) routine should start at the root node of thecontent tree.

The particular methods for evaluating a document's overall degree ofseparability are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting inscope. Other methods for determining separability should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing separation techniques; such thatthe present invention is directed to the much broader concept ofdetermining separability for a document based on a combination ofindividual content separability measured in the context of evaluatingdocument ease of use and document quality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 43 to 46, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's distinguishability.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, given two identicalparagraphs, located at the top of two separate pages of a multi-pagedocument, and that these paragraphs are the only content on theirrespective pages, the degree of separability of these object paragraphscan be based on a determination as to where one object ends and anotherobject begins. In this instance, the separability value would be highsince these objects have no neighboring objects on the same page. Inother words, the closer objects are to one another, the easier it is tonote their differences.

On the other hand, a measure of distinguishability of these two would below because absent neighboring objects, providing a frame of reference,few clues are provided as to which of the two paragraphs are actuallybeing looked at.

A heading can distinguish the content that follows, as illustrated inFIG. 44. The heading can be a separate paragraph at the start of a groupof content objects (usually with a different style to distinguish it asa heading). Numbering of list elements and, to a lesser degree, bulletelements also help distinguish content. There can be a hierarchy ofheadings, e.g., chapter, section, list element, etc. Each headingcontributes to making an underlying object distinguishable fromneighboring objects.

In general, the lower the heading is in the content tree, the smallerthe set of content it applies to. Thus, the more specific theidentification is. The lower level headings in the content tree, andphysically closer headings, count more than higher level ones.

The following recursive algorithm determines heading contribution todistinguishability of object G. It assumes that heading content objectshave already been identified. A heading's contribution is weighedaccording to its distance up the tree from the original object.HeadingDistinguish(G) {   if G is the root     then return 0   P =parent(G)   if P is a list     then if P numbers the list elements        then R = ListNumberWeight       otherwise if P is a bulletedlist             then R = ListBulletWeight           otherwise R = 0  if a child of P is a heading    then R = minimum (R +HeadingWeight, 1)   return w * R + (1− w) * HeadingDistinguish(P) }

The expressions: ListNumberWeight, ListBulletWeight and HeadingWeightare constant contributions to the heading result. These have valuesbetween 0 and 1. The ListNumberWeight should have the largest valuesince list numbers are distinct and near to their corresponding listelement content objects. Whereas, HeadingWeight and ListBulletWeighthave lesser values, since the heading applies to all list elements.Bulleted elements have identical values for all elements in the list.The ListBulletWeight may be larger than the HeadingWeight since therewill be a bullet close to the object. The weight w specifies therelative importance of the heading at the current tree level to headingsat higher levels. For example, if w=0.5, then a heading at the currentlevel would be considered as important as headings at all higher levelscombined.

Object G and neighbor N should be distinguishable based on content typeand value, as illustrated in FIG. 45. For different types of content(1106, 1107, and 1108), their value differences can be retrieved from atwo-dimensional table indexed by content type. The table preferablycontains values that express just how different those content types are.If type(G) does not match type(N),ContentDistinguish=TypeDistinguishTable[type(G)][type(N)].

If the types do match, content properties can be compared. For groups,lists and tables, the total number of words or characters for all oftheir contained elements can be compared.

For example, for paragraphs, the number of words or characters thereofcan be counted. For lists, the number of list elements can be compared.For tables, the number of rows and columns can be compared. For graphicobjects, size and shape can be compared. Since some object types mayhave several properties by which differences are measured, an overalldifference is preferably calculated as a weighted sum of the variouscontent differences for an object type. For example,ContentDistinguish=Σw_(i) cd_(i)(G,N), where the sum is over availablestyle parameters i, w_(i) is the weight for the i^(th) contentdifference measure, and cd_(i) is the actual i^(th) difference measure.

Furthermore, objects can be distinguished by their position on theirrespective pages, as illustrated in FIG. 46. Given object G and neighborN, the center position for these objects 110 on page 100 (x_(G), y_(G))and (x_(N), y_(N)), the distance between them can be calculatedpreferably normalized by the dimensions of the page W_(p) by H_(p).

For example: PositionDistinguish=(((x_(G)−x_(N))²+(y_(G)−y_(N))²)/(W_(P)²+H_(P) ²))^(1/2). This can be further limited by only consideringnearby neighbors on the same page. The same list of neighbors generatedfor separability can then be utilized. The cost in limiting comparisonsto objects on a page, however, is the failure to recognize cases whereobjects on different pages are indistinguishable.

If any of AlignmentSep, StyleSep, BackgroundSep and ContentDistinguishmeasures, (described above), provides a strong difference, then theoverall effective distinguishability should be high. The closer theneighbor is to the object, the easier it should be to observe theirdifferences. The end result should receive a boost from the SpatialSep.The value of PositionDistinguish can be a further differentiator. Ifboost b is defined by: b=d/(d+SpatialSep); where the d parametercontrols the strength of the boost effect of spatial nearness, then:EffectiveDistinguish=c−[w_(a)*(c−b*AlignmentSep)^(−p)+w_(s)*(c−b*StyleSep)^(−p)+w_(b)*(c−b*BackgroundSep)^(−p)+w_(c)*(c−b*ContentDistinguish)^(−p)+w_(p)*(c−PositionDistinguish)^(−p)]^(−1/p));where w_(a), w_(s), w_(b), w_(c) and w_(p) are weighting values thatgive the relative importance of the alignment, style, background,content and position differences respectively and should sum to 1. Theconstant c is slightly larger than 1 to prevent division by zero. Notethat this is the effective distingishability between an object and oneof its neighbors.

To quantify the total distinguishability of a content object, it must bedistinguished from all neighbors. In addition, any inherent featuressuch as headers must also be considered. Total distinguishability can bedetermined by taking the minimum of all EffectiveDistinguish values forall neighbors.

Alternatively, one can raise each term to a power and then apply theinverse power to the sum.TotalDistinguish=w_(h)*HeadingDistinguish+(1−w_(h))*([(1/n)*Σ(c+EffectiveDistinguish)^(−p)]^(−1/p)−c); where w_(h) is theweight of the HeadingDistinguish property relative to the neighbordifferencing properties, n is the number of neighbors, constant c is asmall constant to guard against division by zero, and power p determineshow strongly close similarities dominate.

A combination of distinguishability measures, as illustrated in FIG. 43,is useful in evaluating the document's total distinguishability.

More specifically, the total distinguishability, as illustrated in FIG.43, is considered a combination of the effective distinguishability andthe heading distinguishability. In FIG. 43, the quantizeddistinguishability value is derived by a combining of the effectivedistinguishability and the heading distinguishability using a totaldistinguishability quantizer or combiner circuit 23.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the totaldistinguishability quantization process, this process may also beperformed in software by the microprocessor and/or firmware. Thequantization is not limited to specific circuits, but any combination ofsoftware and/or hardware that is able to carry out the below describedmethodologies.

A document's overall distinguishability can be defined as the combiningof all total distinguishability for all content objects and groups.These values can be combined using a straight average. Alternatives,however, are possible.

If any neighbors are present, from which it is difficult to distinguishthe object, then the overall distinguishability for the document shouldbe low. One might argue that any object or group with a lowdistinguishability value adversely impacts the entire document andtherefore should be given higher weight by combining as the root of thesum of powers.

Another issue is whether or not the importance of distinguishabilityvaries with the level in content hierarchy. For example, should beingable to distinguish chapters be more or less important than being ableto distinguish paragraphs. An algorithm for computing documentdistinguishability by recursively traversing the content tree waspreviously discussed which calculates a weighted average. Again, weightsw_(L) can vary with tree level L.

To determine the distinguishability of a document using its content treecan be effectuated by the following pseudocode called on the root nodeof the content tree. Distinguishability (G) {   if G is a leaf node    then return TotalDistinguish(G)      otherwise       for each childC of G         call Distinguishability (C) and find the average        A of values   return w_(L) * TotalDistinguish (G) + (1 −w_(L)) * A }

The particular methods for evaluating a document's overall degree ofdistinguishability are exemplary and are not to be considered aslimiting in scope. Other methods for determining distinguishabilityshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to differingdistinguishing devices; such that the present invention is directed tothe much broader concept of determining distinguishability for adocument based on a combination of individual content distinguishabilitymeasured in the context of evaluating document ease of use and documentquality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 47 to 51, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's locatability.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the termlocatability is used to mean the ability to find or locate a particularcontent item from among all the other content items. A measure oflocatability is constructed by examination of the document factors thataid or inhibit the locating of content objects.

As illustrated in FIG. 50, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's visibility.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one factor indetermining an object's locatability is to determine the visibility ofthe object, i.e., how well it can be seen against its background. Asused herein, visibility means how easy it is to see the object, or howdifficult it is to overlook it. Herein two characteristics are used inmeasuring the value of the object's visibility. One is the size of theobject 1110 (the larger the object the easier it should be to detect andidentify it) and the other 1111 is its difference from the background.

As a measure of the difference from the background (1111), the luminancecontrast is used, although other and more complex measures areenvisioned. If the background is textured, the luminance contrast andcolor difference may not be well defined. Texture may also act to hidean object.

If colors are specified in red, green and blue (R,G,B) coordinatesnormalized to range between 0 and 1 then luminance can be given by: Y=yrR+yg G+yb B; where yr, yg and yb are the luminance values for the red,green and blue primary colors respectively. The yr, yg and yb valuesdepend upon the details of the color space actually used but typicalvalues are 0.25, 0.68 and 0.07 respectively.

Contrast is calculated from the luminance of the foreground Y_(f) andthat of the background Y_(b) such that:Contrast=2|Y_(b)−Y_(f)|/(Y_(b)+Y_(f)). It should be pointed out thatsince both contrast and size affect visibility, these values arecombined by multiplying them together. While contrast ranges between 0and 1, size can be unbounded. For a size to be bounded by 0 and 1, theobject size is normalized by dividing it by the maximum size it can be.For example: visibility=contrast*(object area)/(maximum area). Ingeneral, this is the area of the document. But, if objects arerestricted to a page, the page size can be used.

The particular methods for evaluating an object's degree of visibilityare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining visibility should be considered within the scopeof the present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to object characteristics with respect to its visibility.

As illustrated in FIG. 49, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's structural locatability.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another factor inthe ease of locating a document element is the presence of structuralaids (such as headings and bullets within the document). This measure istermed the structural locatability and can be implemented by a tree ortable look-up where the result is a predefined value, which depends onthe type and style of the structure that contains the element. Forexample, a decision tree that set a structural location termStructLocate for element E might look as follows: G = parent(E)   if Gis a table     then if G has row headings       then if G has columnheadings         then StructLocate = Vtrc         otherwise StructLocate= Vtr       otherwise if G has column headings           thenStructLocate = Vtc           otherwise StructLocate = Vt   otherwise ifG is a list          then if G has bullets             then StructLocate= Vlb             otherwise if G has numbers               thenStructLocate = Vln               otherwise StructLocate = Vl        otherwise StructLocate = Vgwhere Vtrc, Vtr, Vtc, Vt, Vlb, Vln, VI and Vg are the predeterminedlocatability contributions for structural cases.

The particular methods for evaluating a document's structurallocatability are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting inscope. Other methods for determining structural locatability should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to structural aids to locatingobjects; such that the present invention is directed to the much broaderconcept of determining structural locatability for a document based on acombination of individual content structure measured in the context ofevaluating document ease of use and document quality.

In addition to structural contributions, a member of a group may beidentified by its effective distinguishability from other group members.For example, one might locate the long paragraph in a group and ignorethe short ones, or locate the middle paragraph of a list. The methods ofmeasuring effective distinguishability can also be used forlocatability. However, instead of comparing the object to its neighbors,the object is compared to its sibling members in the group.

Having calculated the EffectiveDistinguish value for the group elementunder consideration, with each of the other sibling members, the resultscan be combined as follows:DistinguishLocate=[(1/n)Σ(c+EffectiveDistinguish)^(−p)]^(−1/p)−c; wherethe sum is overall n sibling group members. The constants c and P havethe same effect as for the TotalDistinguish calculation and may be thesame values.

The ease of locating a member item within a group depends upon thenumber of items the group contains. If there are only one or two itemsin the group then it will be easy to locate an item. But if there are athousand items, the task of locating one in particular will be moredifficult. This depends upon the presentation method. For instance,finding an item presented in a table of 100 elements is not as difficultas finding the item in a list of 100 elements. A factor for the effectsof the size of the group containing element E is calculated as:G=parent(E)if G is a tablethen GroupSizeFactor=(1−A+A/rows(G))*(1−A+A/columns(G))otherwise GroupSizeFactor=(1−A+A/elements(G));where rows(G) and columns(G) are the number of rows and columns in thetable G and elements(G) is the number of elements in the group G and Ais a parameter controlling the strength of the factor with group size.

The structural contribution to locating a group member is combined withthe distinguishability contribution. A weighted sum of the twocontributions is used where the weights determine the relativeimportance of the two factors. However, it can be argued that if eithercontribution allows one to locate the element, then the overall resultshould be high, regardless of the other contribution.

The combined result should reduce according to the size of the group.This can be achieved by:MemberLocate=(c−[w_(m)*(c−StructLocate)^(−p)+(1−w_(m))*(c−DistinguishLocate)^(−p)]^(−1/p))*GroupSizeFactor; where w_(m) is theweight of the structural contribution relative to the distinguishabilitycontribution, c is a constant slightly larger than 1 and P is an numbergreater than 1.

A combination of locatability measures, as illustrated in FIG. 48, isuseful in evaluating the document's member locatability.

More specifically, the member locatability, as illustrated in FIG. 48,is considered a combination of the structural locatability, as describedabove, and/or the distinguished locatability, as described above. InFIG. 48, the quantized member locatability value is derived by acombining of the the structural locatability and the distinguishedlocatability using a member locatability quantizer or combiner circuit25.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the memberlocatability quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

A further combination of locatability measures, as illustrated in FIG.47, is useful in evaluating the document's direct locatability.

More specifically, the direct locatability, as illustrated in FIG. 47,is considered a combination of the member locatability,distinguishability, separability, and/or visibility. In FIG. 47, thequantized direct locatability value is derived by a combining of themember locatability, distinguishability, separability, and/or visibilityusing a direct locatability quantizer or combiner circuit 24.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the directlocatability quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another mechanism toaid in locating an element is a reference or link to that element, suchas a page number in a table of contents, or as a hyperlink in anelectronic document. For example, a paragraph might be found through thetable of contents or by looking in the index for the location of aparticular word. The ease of location may not vary linearly with thenumber of references. If the number of references to the element underconsideration is Nr, then a function that increases non-linearly from 0to 1 with increasing Nr can be written as:ReferenceLocate=1−(Nr+1)^(−1/P); where P determines how stronglyadditional references contribute.

The particular methods for evaluating a contribution of references tothe ability to locate objects are exemplary and are not to be consideredas limiting in scope. Other methods for determining the contributionfrom references should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todiffering degrees of referencing; such that the present invention isdirected to the much broader concept of determining the effect ofreferencing on the measures of locatability in the context of evaluatingdocument ease of use and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 51, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's total locatability.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above individuallocatability contributions can be combined into a total locatabilitymeasure. First, note that if any of the first four contributing measuresare low for an item, then that particular item is likely to be hard tolocate as it will either be hard to see or will be confused with itsneighbors, or siblings. These four contributions can be combined asfollows:DirectLocate=([w_(v)*(c+Visibility)^(−p)+w_(s)*(c+TotalSep)^(−p)+w_(d)*(c+TotalDistinguish)^(−p)+w_(dl)*(c+DistinguishLocate)^(−p)]^(−1/p)−c);where w_(v), w_(s), w_(d) and w_(dl) are the weights describing therelative importance of the contributions and sum to 1; c is a smallnumber used to prevent division by zero and P determines how stronglyone bad contribution to locatability spoils the overall result.

Next, the measures for locating the item directly, locating it throughreferences, and locating it through its parent, can all be combined.Thus:TotalLocate=c−[w_(n)*(c−DirectLocate)^(−p)+w_(r)*(c−ReferenceLocate)^(−p)+w_(p)*(c−TotalLocate(parent))^(−p)]^(−1/P);where the weights w_(n), w_(r) and w_(p) sum to 1, c is a numberslightly larger than 1 and P is a number greater than or equal to 1.

An overall locatability for a document is determined by combining thetotal locatability for all document content objects and groups. Thesimplest way to combine these values is a straight average. Just as forseparability and distinguishability, one might argue that any object orgroup with a low locatability value strongly impacts the entire documentand should be given higher weight such as by combining the root ofpowers.

The documents overall locatability gives an overall feel for how easy itis to locate items in a document by calculating and combining measuresof how easy it is to locate each and every document component. Analgorithm for computing document locatability is provided herein whichrecursively traverses the content tree to calculate a weighted average;although the weights w_(L) can vary with tree level L. To find theoverall Locatability of a document, the following routine is executed onthe root node of the content tree. Locatability (G) {   if G is a leafnode     then return TotalLocate(G)     otherwise       for each child Cof G         call Locatability (C) and find the average of         thesevalues A  return w_(L) * TotalLocate (G) + (1 − w_(L)) * A }

The particular methods for evaluating a document's overall degree oflocatability are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting inscope. Other methods for determining locatability should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing techniques for locating contentobjects; such that the present invention is directed to the much broaderconcept of determining separability for a document based on acombination of individual content separability measured in the contextof evaluating document ease of use and document quality.

A combination of locatability measures, as illustrated in FIG. 51, isuseful in evaluating the document's total locatability.

More specifically, the total locatability, as illustrated in FIG. 51, isconsidered a combination of the direct locatability, referencelocatability, and/or parents' locatability. In FIG. 51, the quantizedtotal locatability value is derived by a combining of the directlocatability, reference locatability, and/or parents' locatability usinga total locatability quantizer or combiner circuit 26.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the totallocatability quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a document's degreeof searchability can be determined by first determining a value forstrength of searchability of the document, and then determining thedocument's search density relative to the strength of searchability. Thesearch density is mapped to a value that ranges between 0 and 1 and inone embodiment consists of evaluating the relationship given by:1−c/(c+Search Density); where c is a constant which is the size of thetypical search density and P determines how quickly searchabilityapproaches 1 with increasing search density.

The strength of searchability is determined by features of the documentintended to aid in searching. Features include at least one of thenumber of table elements, the number of list elements, the number oflist bullets, and the number of list element numbers or the number ofother reference terminals, a reference terminal being a positionindicator that can be used by a reference; such as a label, a chapternumber for a textual reference, or an anchor for a hyperlink.

One method for collecting such features is to traverse the content treelooking for the features and incrementing counters when they arediscovered.

An exemplary recursive algorithm to collect these features is asfollows: CollectSearchFeatures(G) {   if G is a table     then Ft = Ft +number of elements is G       for each element E of G        CollectSearchFeatures(E)    otherwise    if G is a list    thenFl = Fl + number of elements in G       if G is bulleted         then Fb= Fb + number of bullets in the list G       if G is numbered        then Fn = Fn + number of numbered elements in G       for eachelement E of G CollectSearchFeatures(E)   otherwise   if G is a group    then for each element E of G CollectSearchFeatures(E)    otherwise   if G acts as a reference label     then Fr = Fr + 1    if G is ananchor     then Fa = Fa + 1 }

An overall strength of searchability can be formed as the weighted sumof the various feature contributors. For example:SearchStrength=w_(t)*Ft+w_(l)*Fl+w_(b)*Fb+w_(n)*Fn+w_(r)*Fr+w_(a)*Fa;where w_(t), w_(i), w_(b), w_(n), w_(r) and w_(a) are the weights andsum to 1.

The size of the document may also influence searchability. Having nfeatures in a small document should count more than n features in alarge one. Thus, document size can be defined as the amount ofinformation it contains. Document information can be approximated by thenumber of characters in the document description. For example:SearchDensity=SearchStrength/NumberOfCharacters.

This provides a measure of the document's search enablingcharacteristics, but it is potentially unbounded. It can be converted toa measure that varies between 0 and 1. For example:Searchability=1−c/(c+SearchDensity)^(P); where c and P determine howquickly the Searchability approaches 1 with increasing Search Density.

The particular methods for evaluating a document's overall degree ofsearchability are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting inscope. Other methods for determining searchability should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing search affecting features; suchthat the present invention is directed to the much broader concept ofdetermining searchability for a document based on a combination ofindividual content search supporting features in the context ofevaluating document ease of use and document quality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 52 to 57, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's group identity.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, group identity isthe ability to see the members of a group as a group. One indicator ofgroup identity is referred to herein as Spatial Coherence meaning thatmembers of a group are all located close together on the page. Otherindicators include the presence of a common background or surroundingborder, a uniform style among the elements, alignment of the elements,organization of the elements into a list or a table, and the presence ofa heading for the group. How to measure and combine these indicators isnow discussed.

As illustrated in FIGS. 53 and 54, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's spatial coherence.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, spatial coherence iscalculated when all the group elements (110 of FIG. 55) lie on the samepage (100 of FIG. 55). Here, it is assumed that the bounding box (1120of FIG. 55) for a group or a group element can be found. The boundingbox 1120 gives the width and height of a minimal vertically alignedrectangle that encloses the item. For this determination, area is thewidth times the height: A(E)=W(E)*H(E). Spatial coherence of group Gthen becomes: SpatialCoherence=(ΣA(E_(i)) )/A(G); where the sum is overthe E_(i) elements of group G.

Alternatively one might, for example, take the square root of the aboveexpression making it more like a comparison of perimeters than areas. Orone could actually compute the perimeter of the convex hull of the groupobjects and divide it into the circumference of a circle with areamatching the total area of the elements.

When group elements are spread over two or more pages, one can determinethe spatial coherence for each page and then combine the results. Aweighted average can be used where the weight for a page is proportionalto the number of elements on that page. One should also include apenalty for separating the group over pages. For example, one coulddivide by the number of pages involved.

FIG. 53 is an example of low spatial coherence. FIG. 54 is an example ofhigh spatial coherence.

The particular methods for evaluating spatial coherence provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining spatial coherence should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing spatial placements of content objects; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining spatial coherence but also in the much broaderconcept of using a measure of spatial coherence of content objects in adetermination of content group identity in the context of determiningdocument ease of use and document quality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 56 and 57, another parameter or factor used indetermining ease of use is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's consistency of style.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another indicatorthat elements belong to a group is that they all have the same style.One measure of consistency of style for a group would be to define thesameness of style as: 1−StyleSep; where StyleSep measures the differencein style, and then to pair-wise compare all of the group elements andcombine their sameness values. Combining can be done by averaging.

The particular methods for evaluating sameness of style provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining sameness of style should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining sameness ofstyle but also in the much broader concept of using sameness of style ina determination of content group identity in the context of determiningdocument ease of use and document quality.

One method that looks deeper than just the first level of the group, andcompares styles, is to recursively move down the content tree andcompare the leaves for consistency of style. The style of the leavesdiscovered can be compared to the style of the first leaf in the tree.Since one is looking for style features that tie all members of thegroup together, a simple check is to compare style properties to thefirst leaf. If any leaf has a different property value, then thatproperty cannot be used as an indicator of group membership.

The number of style properties that are consistent across all membersare counted and that value becomes a measure of style consistency. Aprocedure to get the first leaf looks as follows: GetFirstLeaf(G) {   ifG is a leaf     then return G     otherwise returnGetFirstLeaf(FirstElement(G)) }

An exemplary procedure to traverse the tree and compare style propertiesand return the overall consistency would be as follows:LeafConsistency(G, StyleProperties, CurrentConsistency) { if G is a leafthen   CurrentConsistency = CheckConsistency(G, StyleProperties,CurrentConsistency)    otherwise     for each element E of G      CurrentConsistency = LeafConsistency(E, StyleProperties,CurrentConsistency) return CurrentConsistency }where StyleProperties is an array containing the style property valuesfor the first leaf and CurrentConsistency is an array indicating foreach style property whether all leaves checked thus far have a uniformvalue.

The actual checking of style properties against those of the first leafmight be done as CheckConsistency(G, StyleProperties,CurrentConsistency) { for each style property i   if StyleValue(G, i)does not match StyleProperties[i]     then CurrentConsistency[i] = 0return CurrentConsistency }

The procedure for checking consistency of style would look as follows:    StyleConsistency(G)     {     E = GetFirstLeaf(G)     for each styleproperty i      {      StyleProperties[i] = StyleValue(E, i)     CurrentConsistency[i] = 1      }     LeafConsistency(G,StyleProperties, CurrentConsistency)     return the sum of theCurrentConsistency array value divided by the array size.    }

Even more sophisticated calculations can be done. FIG. 56 is an exampleof poor consistency of style. FIG. 57 is an example of good consistencyof style.

The particular methods for evaluating consistency provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining consistency should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to the consistency of styles for content objects; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining consistency but also in the much broader conceptof using a measure of consistency in a determination of content groupidentity in the context of determining document ease of use and documentquality.

It can be argued that the further down the tree one must search for aleaf node, the less that node reflects the properties of the actualgroup being analyzed. One might, therefore, wish only to search the treeto a fixed depth for leaf nodes. Non-leaf nodes can also be compared toone another for consistency of their properties. Further, for thenon-leaf nodes, one might just compare tables to tables, lists to listsand so on. But this raises the question of just what is the proper depthto use in the search. One way is to calculate consistency for all depthsand combine the results, weighing the shallow depths higher than thelarge ones.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, measures for thecontributions to group identity from structure, headings, borders andbackgrounds can also be calculated. Assume a means of determiningwhether a group object has a background (or border); whether it has aheading element; and whether it is a list or table, a heading indicatorcan be created based on whether the group contains a heading. Thefollowing pseudocode illustrates this:

-   -   if first element of the group is a heading        -   then HasHeading=1        -   otherwise HasHeading=0

Similarly, explicit background elements and/or borders can be examined,as in the following pseudocode:

-   -   if the group has its own background        -   then HasBackground=1        -   otherwise HasBackground=0    -   if the group has a border        -   then HasBorder=1        -   otherwise HasBorder=0

A table lookup can be used to obtain a structural contribution based onthe type of group. Lists and tables should be more easily recognized ascoherent objects than unstructured groups as given by:StructuralIdentity=StructIdentTable[type(G)].

These indicators of group identity can be combined into an overallidentity measure given by a weighted average, but a preferred embodimentis to do the root of a weighted average of powers as in: $\begin{matrix}{{GroupIdentity} = {c - \left\lbrack {{w_{sp}*\left( {c - {SpatialCoherence}} \right)^{- p}} +} \right.}} \\{{w_{st}*\left( {c - {StyleConsistency}} \right)^{- p}} + {w_{ah}*\left( {c - {alignH}} \right)^{- p}} +} \\{{w_{av}*\left( {c - {alignV}} \right)^{- p}} + {w_{h}*\left( {c - {HasHeading}} \right)^{- p}} +} \\{{w_{bk}*\left( {c - {HasBackground}} \right)^{- p}} +} \\{\left. {{w_{bd}*\left( {c - {HasBorder}} \right)^{- p}} + {w_{si}*\left( {c - {StructrualIdentity}} \right)^{- p}}} \right\rbrack^{{- 1}/p};}\end{matrix}$where w_(sp), w_(stl), w_(ah), w_(av), w_(h), w_(bk), w_(bd) and w_(si)are the weights and sum to 1. The parameter c and P control the degreeto which a single good value dominates. Constant c is slightly largerthan 1 and the power P is typically 1 or larger. Indicators can becombined using a power function that favors high values.

Just as for separability and distinguishability, any object or groupwith a low group identity value may strongly impact the entire documentand preferably given a higher weight such as, for instance, by combiningas the root of powers. A pseudocode algorithm for computing documentgroup identity by recursively traversing the content tree is provided.This calculates a simple weighted average. Weights wL can vary with treelevel L. To find the DocumentGroupIdentity call this routine on the rootnode of the content tree.    DocumentGroupIdentity (G)    {     if G isa leaf node     then return 1     otherwise      for each child C of Gcall DocumentGroupIdentity (C) and find the average of these values A    return wg * GroupIdentity (G) + (1 − wg) * A    }

The particular methods for evaluating group identity provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining group identity should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing document characteristics with respect togroup identity; such that the present invention is directed to not onlyin the particular method of determining group identity but also in themuch broader concept of using a measure of individual group identity ina determination of document's overall group identity.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 52, is useful inevaluating the document's group identity.

More specifically, the group identity, as illustrated in FIG. 52, isconsidered a combination of the spatial coherence, consistency of style,structural identity, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment, heading,background, and/or border. In FIG. 52, the quantized group identityvalue is derived by a combining of the spatial coherence, consistency ofstyle, structural identity, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment,heading, background, and/or border using a group identity quantizer orcombiner circuit 27.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the group identityquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

As discussed above, the content group ease-of-use is calculated as acombination of the measures of contributing factors. The factors caninclude separability, distinguishability, locatability, searchability,and/or group identity. These factors can be calculated using relationsof the group elements with one another and with relations of groupelements with non-group neighbors.

These relations can include, for example, spatial coherence, spatialseparation, alignment separation, heading separation, backgroundseparation, and/or style separation. If each factor is defined toproduce a value ranging between 0 and 1, such that 0 means low or badease-of-use contribution to a quality value, and 1 meaning high or goodease-of-use contribution to a quality value, these (and possibly othersuch rules) can be calculated and combined to form a measure for theoverall contribution to ease-of-use from the treatment for contentgroups. If V_(i) is the value calculated for the i^(th) rule, then thegroup ease-of-use measure V_(EU) is formed as a function E of thesecontributions: V_(EU)=E(V₁, V₂, . . . V_(N)).

The combining function E can be as simple as a weighted average of thecontributions, but because any bad contributor can ruin the ease of useno matter how good the others are, a linear combination is notpreferred. An alternative is to use:V_(EU)=(Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p)−d.

The w_(i) factors are the weights that specify the relative importanceof each rule; they should sum to 1. The exponent p introduces thenonlinearity that can make one bad value overwhelm many good ones. Thelarger p is, the greater this effect.

Other combining functions are possible, for example, one could take theproduct of the contributions. If weighting of the contribution isdesired, this can be done by exponentiation. V_(EU)=ΠV_(i) ^(wi′).

The particular methods for evaluating content group ease-of-use providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining group ease-of-use should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing document characteristics withrespect to group ease-of-use; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining ease-of-usebut also in the much broader concept of using a combination ofindividual group property measures in the context of evaluating documentease of use and document quality.

A combination of ease of use measures, as illustrated in FIG. 35, isuseful in evaluating the document's ease of use.

More specifically, the group ease of use, as illustrated in FIG. 35, isconsidered a combination of separability, distinguishability,locatability, searchability, and/or group identity. In FIG. 35, thequantized group ease of use value is derived by a combining of theseparability, distinguishability, locatability, searchability, and/orgroup identity using an ease of use quantizer or combiner circuit 20.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the ease of usequantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

Eye-Catching Ability

For some documents, such as advertisements and warning labels, it isimportant that the documents catch the viewer's eye and attention. Animportant property contributing to the quality of these documents istherefore the eye-catching ability of a given layout. The presentinvention provides a method of calculating such an eye-catching measure.

Eye-catching ability is calculated as a combination of simplerproperties. If any of the simpler eye-catching properties is stronglypresent, then the overall effect is an eye-catching document.Contributing factors can include colorfulness, color dissonance, fontsize, information lightness, picture fraction, and/or novelty. Eachfactor is defined such as to produce a value ranging between 0 and 1such that 0 means low or bad eye-catching value and 1 means high or goodeye-catching value. These (and possibly other such rules), can becalculated and combined to form an overall eye-catching measure. IfV_(i) is the value calculated for the i^(th) rule, then the eye-catchingmeasure V_(EC) is formed as a function E of these contributions:V _(EC) =E(V _(cl) , V _(d) , V _(f) , V _(il) , V _(p) . . . V _(n))

The combining function E can be as simple as a weighted average of thecontributions, but because any good contributor can lead to aneye-catching document, no matter how bad the others are, a linearcombination is not preferred. An alternative is to use:V_(EC)=d−[Σw_(i)(d−V _(i))^(−p)]^(−1/p).

Here d is a number slightly larger than 1. The closer the value of d to1, the more strongly a good value will compensate for all other values.The w_(i) factors are the weights that specify the relative importanceof each rule; they should sum to 1. The exponent p introduces thenonlinearity that can also increase the strength by which one good valuecan overwhelm many bad ones. The larger p is the greater this effect.Note that this formula for combining the contributing factors differsfrom the preferred method for combining aesthetics factors orease-of-use factors. In the cases of aesthetics and/or ease-of-use, anybad factor would spoil the quality. Thus, when combining, any lowcontribution will lead to a low result. For eye-catching however, anygood factor will rescue the others, and when combining, any highcontribution will lead to a high result.

Other combining functions are possible; for example, one could take theinverse of the product of the inverse contributions. If weighting of thecontribution is desired, this can be done by exponentiation.V_(EC)=1−Π(1−i)^(wi′).

The particular methods for evaluating ability of the document to catchthe eye provided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered aslimiting in scope. Other methods for determining eye-catching abilityshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to the ability to catch the eye; such thatthe present invention is directed to not only in the particular methodof determining eye-catching ability, but also in the much broaderconcept of using a combination of individual measures in the context ofevaluating document eye-catching ability and document quality.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 58, is useful inevaluating the document's eye-catching ability.

More specifically, the eye-catching ability, as illustrated in FIG. 58,is considered a combination of colorfulness, color dissonance, fontsize, information lightness, picture fraction, and/or novelty. In FIG.58, the quantized eye-catching ability value is derived by a combiningof the colorfulness, color dissonance, font size, information lightness,picture fraction, and/or novelty using an eye-catching ability quantizeror combiner circuit 30.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the eye-catchingability quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, color iseye-catching and a bright orange page can capture attention better thana gray one. The primary property of color of interest here is saturation(or chrominance). There are several possible ways to calculate anapproximate saturation value that can be used in determining the overallcolorfulness of a document or a page. Perhaps the simplest calculationfor colors expressed in an RGB color space is: c=max(R, G, B)−min(R, G,B)

where c is the saturation, as illustrated by FIG. 59 (or chrominance)and max and min are the maximum and minimum functions respectively.

An alternative calculation is: c=[E²+S²]^(1/2) where E=R−G andS=(R+G)/2−B.

When colors are expressed in the L*a*b* color space, the chrominance canbe calculated as: c=[(a*)²+(b*)²]^(1/2).

The color saturation values are weighted by the area of the coloredobjects. This is then divided by the total document area to yield acolorfulness measure: V_(cl)=Σc_(i) A_(i)/Ad where V_(cl) is thecolorfulness measure, c_(i) is the saturation value for the i^(th)object and A_(i) is that object's area. Ad is the area of the entiredocument. The sum is over all objects visible in the document.

The particular methods for evaluating content colorfulness providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining colorfulness should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing amounts and types of color; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining colorfulness but also in the concept of using colorfulnessmeasures in the context of evaluating document eye-catching ability anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when multiple colorsare present on a page, it is not only the amount of color saturationpresent that is important, but also how harmonious those colors are. Forexample, pink and green go together much more harmoniously than pink andorange. Colors that clash will catch the eye. A contributor to theeye-catching property is therefore the color dissonance.

In the following discussion, the calculation of color dissonance isdescribed for the objects that can be seen together (i.e. the objects ona page). If the document has multiple pages, then an average colordissonance value for all pages can be determined.

The color dissonance (or harmony) between two colors is largelydetermined by their hue difference (although the colors should havesufficient saturation and area to be noteworthy).

There are several methods known in the art for calculating anapproximate hue value as an angle for the chrominance components. Forexample, using the E and S values described above one can define the hueas: h=arctan(S/E).

As is well known in the art, special handling of the case E=0 is neededand checking signs to determine the quadrant should be done in order toavoid the confusion between E/S and (−E)/(−S). The result can also bedivided by 2π to yield a value between 0 and 1.

In the L*a*b* color space a similar calculation can be performed givingh=arctan((b*)/(a*)).

Another method described by A. R. Smith for calculating an approximatehue value is expressed as the following pseudocode: v = max (R, G, B) w= min(R, G, B) c = v − w r1 = (v − R) / c g1 = (v − G) / c b1 = (v − B)/ c if (R = = v)  if ( G = = w)   h = 5 + b1  else   h = 1 − g1 else if(G = = v)   if (B = = w)    h = 1 + r1   else    h = 3 − b1  else   if(R = = w)    h = 3 + g1   else    h = 5 − r1 h = h / 6

In order to calculate the color dissonance one must first determinewhich hues, as illustrated in FIG. 60, are present with sufficientstrength to matter. For each object on the page, calculate its colorsaturation and area as described above. Lightly saturated objects shouldnot contribute strongly. One way to carry this out is to compare thesaturation to a threshold and ignore objects with insufficientsaturation (i.e. c_(i) must be greater than Tc where Tc is thethreshold).

Another approach is to weight the object area by saturation as inA_(i)′=A_(i)*c_(i). Other variations such as raising the saturation to apower before using it to weight the area are possible.

The identified colored areas can be summed across all the objects inorder to determine how much area in each hue can be seen on the page.The areas can be collected in a table H of n possible hue buckets bymeans of a pseudocode expression such as: H[n*h_(i)]=H[n*h_(i)]+A_(i)′where h_(i) is the hue of the i^(th) object and A_(i)′ is its weightedarea.

To determine the color dissonance, compare every color hue found withevery other color hue found. That is, compare all of the colorsrepresented by the H table to one another. The H table tells the amountof area seen in each color hue and can be used to ignore cases where thetotal area of a color is too small to worry about. An alternative tocollecting the colors for the objects on a page is to compare the colorof each object with the color of its neighbors. Regardless of whichmethod is used, the results from all comparisons must somehow becombined. A simple way of doing this is to just keep the maximumdissonance value encountered. A pseudocode example is as follows: Vd = 0for i from 1 to n  { for j from i to n    { dissonance =calculateDissonance(i, j, H[i], H[j])     if dissonance > Vd      Vd =dissonance    }  }

The calculateDissonance function might look as follows:calculateDissonance(i, j, ai, aj) {   if ai > bigEnough and aj >bigEnough    return dissonanceTable[j − i]  otherwise   return 0 }where bigEnough is a threshold value used to ignore small areas of colorand dissonance table is a table of color dissonance values.

Using a table allows any desired function shape to be used; howeverdirect calculation of the dissonance value is also possible. Thedissonance table captures the model of color harmony and dissonance. Asimple model is that the harmony of colors only depends on their huedifference and not the absolute hues themselves. Using this model, thedissonance table need only be indexed with the hue difference. Anexample of such a model is colors with hue angles that are similar (near0 degrees apart) or opposite (180 degrees apart) or a third of the wayround the hue circle (120 degrees apart) are considered harmonious whileother hue angle differences are dissonant. The values stored in thedissonance table would look similar to those depicted graphically inFIG. 96.

Alternative calculations are possible. For example, one might weighteach dissonance look-up by the product of the areas of the two colorhues being considered and sum this weighted dissonance result over allcomparisons. This sum should be normalized by dividing by the sum of allarea products (without the dissonance result factored in). Thiscalculation gives more of and overall average dissonance measure insteadof a maximum dissonance. The particular methods for evaluating contentcolor dissonance provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining colordissonance should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todiffering amounts and types of color; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining colordissonance but also in the concept of using a color dissonance measurein the context of evaluating document eye-catching ability and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another mechanismfor catching the eye is to use large fonts. This makes the text readablefrom a distance and gives it a feeling of importance. This mechanism canbe used when the document is presented in black and white. It is themaximum font size that is important here (not the average). It can befound by stepping through all the fonts used (or stepping through allthe text and finding the fonts) and keeping track of the largest. Themaximum font size found should be converted to a number between 0 and 1for combination with the other measures.

A way to do this is as follows: V_(f)=f/(fn+f) where f is the maximumfont size found and fn is close to the typical font size found indocuments (e.g. 8 or 10 point).

One can also consider weighting the largest font by a function thenumber of characters. However, while increasing the number of charactersmay make the document more eye-catching when only a few characters arepresent, the effect may diminish for large numbers of characters.

The impact of font size can be calculated by considering all of thefonts within a document simultaneously, however, an alternative would beto determine the impact of each page separately and then to combine theresults of the pages. Combining page results could be done by a simpleaverage, and this may be appropriate for documents such aspresentations. However, for many documents it is sufficient for only onepage to be eye-catching (e.g. the cover page) and it may be better toemploy a non-linear combining method that gives a high score if any ofthe individual page contributions are high. Or alternatively, one mightuse a weighted average where the first page is weighted higher than theother.

The particular methods for evaluating font size impact provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining font size should be considered within the scopeof the present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to differing sizes and types of fonts; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining a font size measure but also in the concept of using fontand font size measures in the context of evaluating documenteye-catching ability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, page that is denselypacked with information will typically require that information to besmall and uniform and unlikely to catch the eye. This is not ashard-and-fast an indicator as color or font size because the informationmight, for example, be presented as a mixture of easy to ignore smallblack text and eye-catching large colored text. Never the less, one canuse the information lightness (the inverse of information density) asanother clue as to the documents eye-catching behavior.

For text, a rough measure of the information present is just the numberof characters Nc used to encode the information. One might also consideralternative measures such as a count of the number of words.

For graphic figures, one can count the number of primitive graphicalconstructs (lines, rectangles, circles, arcs, strokes, triangles,polygons, etc.) used to build the figures. The count of graphicconstructs Ng may be multiplied by a scaling value to normalize it withrespect to the text measure.

Estimating the information content of pictorial images Np is moreproblematical. One simple approach is to just include a constantinformation estimation value for each image.

An alternative approach is to sum the variance of the pixel values fromtheir neighborhood values and divide by the image area. Other schemescan also be used to estimate the information found in pictures. Thisestimate may also require a scaling factor to match its measure to thatfor text. The total information would then be: Nt=Nc+sg Ng+sp Np.

The information density is the total information divided by the area ofthe document: Id=Nt/Ad.

To convert this to a number ranging between 0 and 1 one can again employthe following method: V_(id)=Id/(a+Id) where a is a constant on theorder of the typical information density value.

One can define the information lightness as the inverse of theinformation density as calculated by: V_(il)=1−V_(id).

The particular methods for evaluating information density and lightnessprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining information lightness should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing amounts and areas ofinformation; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining information density or lightness,but also in the concept of using information lightness measures in thecontext of evaluating document eye-catching ability and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, pictures are moreeye-catching than pure text. That is why there are pictures onpaperback-book covers that are intended to attract viewers to purchasethem, but only simple text inside to convey the story. Of course, notall pictures are equally interesting, and for a true measure of apicture eye-catching ability, some analysis of the picture content wouldbe necessary. Still, the mere presence of any pictures in a document isgenerally an indicator of greater eye-catching ability. A simple measureof this is the fraction of the document area devoted to pictorial imagesAp. A normalized measure is: Vp=Ap/Ad.

The particular method for evaluating picture fraction provided herein isexemplary and is not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining picture fraction should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing amounts of pictorial information; such thatthe present invention is directed to not only in the particular methodof determining picture fraction but also in the concept of using apicture fraction measure in the context of evaluating documenteye-catching ability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another indicator ofhow eye-catching a document is its novelty, that is, the presence of theunexpected or unconventional. Of course, to tell if something isunexpected or unconventional, one must first have some model of what isexpected or conventional. Such models can be quite sophisticated and caninclude such factors as the type of document and its anticipated use.However, the use of novelty is illustrated with a simple model. Thatmodel is a single typical value expected for each style parameter.

Style parameters are the available choices that govern the appearanceand presentation of the document. They can include the presence ofbackgrounds and borders, the thickness of borders and rules, paragraphindentation and separation, list indentation, list bulleting, fontstyle, font weight and so on. Style parameters also include font sizeand color selections, which were considered separately above.

It is believed that it is proper to include color and font size in theestimation of novelty for completeness, but that they should also besingled out in the calculation of eye-catching ability since theircontribution in this respect is much greater than would be explained byunconventionality alone.

In the simple model each style parameter P_(i) has an anticipated valueP0 _(i). For any style parameter, but particularly for parameters withbinary (or enumerated) choices, one can simply add in a constant noveltycontribution n_(i) if the actual style P_(i) does not match the expectedvalue P0 _(i). More sophisticated calculations are possible; forexample, when the style parameter can vary continuously from theexpected value (as perhaps in the case of rule width or font size). Afunction of the style difference can be calculated as the noveltycontribution:n _(i) =F(P _(i) −P 0 _(i)).

For enumerated style values one can employ a table look-up to yield moreflexibility and control over the novelty contribution. n_(i)=T[P_(i)].

The overall document novelty can be found by taking the average of thenovel contributions for all style settings. Thus if the document had mstyle choices, the average novelty would be: Vn=Σn_(i)/m.

The expected values P0 _(i) can be set a priori, or preferably can befound by examining the style settings of typical documents. If they aredetermined by analyzing documents, the analysis can be conducted on anon-going basis and they can be allowed to adapt to the current typicaldocument style.

In more sophisticated models, the expected style value may depend uponthe location of the content item within the document's logicalstructure. Thus, the expected font style for a heading might be weighteddifferently from the expected setting for the body text. But however itis calculated, novelty can provide a clue as to the documents ability tocatch the eye.

The particular methods for evaluating novelty provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining novelty should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to differing styles. The present invention lies not only inthe particular method of determining picture fraction but also in theconcept of using a novelty measure in the context of evaluating documenteye-catching ability and document quality.

Interest

A property of a document contributing to its quality that is similar toits eye-catching ability is the ability of the document to holdattention and interest. While a major contributor to the interest of adocument is its subject matter, the presentation of that subject matter(the style and format) can affect the interest level as well. Thisinvention provides a method of calculating an interest measure for thestyle and format decisions, calculated as a combination of simplerfactors that contribute to interest. If any of the simpler interestfactors is strongly present, then the overall effect is an interestingdocument.

Factors can include variety, change rate, emphasis, graphic fractioncolorfulness, color dissonance, picture fraction, and/or novelty.Calculation methods are defined for each of these factors and each aredesigned to produce a value ranging between 0 and 1, such that 0 meanslow or bad interest value, and 1 means high or good interest value.These (and possibly other such factors) can be calculated and combinedto form an overall interest measure Vi. The separate factors can becombined by a method similar to that described above for theeye-catching ability property.

The particular methods for evaluating ability of the document tomaintain interest provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining how wellthe document maintains interest should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to differing document characteristics with respect to theability to maintain interest; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining the abilityto maintain interest, but also in the much broader concept of using acombination of individual measures in the context of evaluating documentinterest and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 62, another parameter or factor used indetermining interest is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's variety.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one way to make adocument interesting to look at is to include a variety of styles in itspresentation. Style parameters are the available choices that govern theappearance and presentation of the document. They can include thepresence of backgrounds and borders, the thickness of borders and rules,paragraph indentation and separation, list indentation, list bulleting,font style, font weight, font size, color selections and so on.

Style parameters can be grouped and associated with the logicalstructure of the content. For example, style parameters associated witha text string include the font family, font size, font style, fontweight, and color.

Style parameters associated with a paragraph include the indentation,line length, line spacing, before and after spacing and quadding.

Style parameters associated with lists include left and right listindentation, bullet or numbering style, and bullet positioning.

In determining variety of style one is counting the number of stylespresent in the document, but this raises the question of just whatconstitutes a different style. Should style parameters be consideredindividually or as a group?

For example, if a document contains a 12-point bold weight font and a10-point normal weight font, is that four styles (two sizes plus twoweights) or just two styles (two fonts)? The answer for the preferredembodiment is two and the styles should be considered in combination.

But this still leaves the question of what combinations should beconsidered. If the 12-point bold is used in a list without bullets, andthe 10-point normal is used in a list with bullets, is this still onlytwo styles, or should the list styles and font styles be consideredindependently? This answer is less clear.

But, if one considers the correct grouping to be the entire set of styleparameters so that whenever any style parameter changes a new overallstyle is generated, there is the potential of a combinational explosionof style instances. While this approach is not ruled out, the preferredmethod is to group the style parameters according to their associatedcontent type (i.e. text styles, paragraph styles, graphic styles, liststyles, table styles, content element background styles etc.).

Thus, in the above example, one would have two text styles and two liststyles for four style choices in the document. This approach also avoidsthe problems arising from the growth of style parameters from thehierarchical structure of a document. If the document contains lists oflists of lists, the preferred approach gives three instances of thesimple list style group instead of some new large group containing allthe style choices of the structure.

To estimate the style variety, first decide what style parameters andparameter groups to include in the analysis. For example, one mightdecide to consider just the text, paragraph, and graphic styles. Fortext, consider font family, size, weight, style and color. For graphics,consider fill color, edge color and edge thickness. For paragraphs,consider line length, line spacing, quadding, and first-lineindentation.

Three lists are constructed, one for each type of style group. The listelements contain the values of the style parameters for that group. Onethen steps through the document's logical structure, examining eachlogical element being analyzed for the style setting (in this exampleeach text segment, graphic element and paragraph.) One considers thestyle parameter settings of each logical content element and checks thecorresponding list to see if an entry has been made with a matching setof values.

If a matching list entry is found, nothing more need be done for thiscontent element. If, however, the list does not contain a match, a newlist element containing the new set of style values should beconstructed and added to the list.

At the end of the document analysis, the lists should contain all of thestyle parameter combinations that were discovered. One can then simplycount the number of list elements to determine the number of stylesused. The sizes of all the lists should be combined into an overallstyle count. One can weight the list sizes when adding them together ifone wishes to make the variety of one form of content count more thanthat of another (for example, one might make variety in paragraph stylecount more than variety in graphics). The result would be an overallweighted count of style changes s: s=Σw_(x) s_(x) where s_(x) is thesize of the x^(th) style list and w_(x) is the weight.

In order to combine the style variety measure with the othercontributions to interest, this weighted count should be converted to anumber ranging between 0 and 1. This can be done as follows:V_(v)=s/(a_(s)+s) where V_(v) is the variety measure and a_(s) is aconstant value about the size of the expected number of styles in atypical document. FIG. 62 is an example of high variety.

The particular methods for evaluating the variety of the documentcontent and style provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining varietyshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to variety; such that the present inventionis directed to not only in the particular method of determining variety,but also in the much broader concept of using variety measures in thecontext of evaluating document interest and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 63, another parameter or factor used indetermining interest is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's change rate.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is not only thevariety of styles in a document that holds interest, but also the rateat which the style changes. There may only be two style combinationsrepresented, but if the document is frequently switching back and forthbetween them, it is more interesting than if it changes only once.

Calculating the style change rate is similar to calculating the stylevariety as described above, and uses the same style parameters andgroupings. However, one need only to maintain for a single descriptionof the most recently encountered style parameter set for each group(instead of a list of all previously encountered sets). For example,there would be a single set of most recently encountered text styleparameters, a single set of the graphic style parameters and a set ofthe most recently encountered paragraph parameters. Step through thedocument's logical description and examine the style settings. Whenevera content element has style parameters that differ from those seen mostrecently, a count of the changes for that style group is incremented,and the new set of style values for use with the next content element isremembered. In a manner similar to the variety calculation, the changecounts can be weighted and combined to form a total weighted changecount c. c=Σw_(x) c_(x) where c_(x) is the size of the x^(th) stylegroup change count and w_(x) is the weight.

In order to combine the style change rate measure with the othercontributions to interest, this weighted count should be converted to anumber ranging between 0 and 1. This can be done as follows:V_(ch)=c/(a_(ch)+c) where V_(ch) is the variety measure and a_(ch) is aconstant value about the size of the expected number of style changes ina typical document. FIG. 63 is an example of high change rate.

The particular methods for evaluating the change rate of the documentstyle provided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered aslimiting in scope. Other methods for determining change rate should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing document stylecharacteristics with respect to perceived change rate; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining change rate, but also in the much broader concept of usingchange rate measures in the context of evaluating document interest anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, some font styles arechosen to emphasize the text. Large text, bold text, and underscoredtext all have an implied importance over the normal text presentation.This implied importance tells the reader to wakeup and pay attention. Assuch, it has a special contribution to the maintenance of viewerinterest. One can calculate an average emphasis measure for the text ina document by summing an emphasis value for each character and thendividing by the total number of characters. V_(e)=Σe(t)/nc where V_(e)is the emphasis measure, e is the emphasis function for character t, thesum is over all characters and nc is the total number of characters.

The function e(t) should include factors for the size of the text, itsweight, its variant and its contrast (other factors such as font stylemight also be included). The larger the font size, the greater theemphasis, but one would like to have a factor that ranges between 0and 1. An expression such as size(t)/(a_(fs)+size(t)), where a_(fs) is aconstant about the size of a typical font, will do this. The font weight(e.g. light, normal, bold, heavy) is typically an enumerated value and atable of suitable emphasis factors for each weight ew[weight(t)] can beused in the emphasis function. Similarly, the font variant (e.g. normal,underlined, strikethrough, outlined) can be handled as a table look-upsuch as ev[variant(t)].

Contrast also plays a role in the strength of text emphasis. Text withlow contrast to the background will not have the same degree of impactas high contrast text. The luminance contrast can be calculated asdescribed above as 2|Yb−Yf|/(Yb+Yf) where Yb is the luminance of thebackground and Yf=Lum(t) is the luminance of the text.

An example of an emphasis function is then:e(t)=(size(t)/(a _(fs)+size(t)))ew[weight(t)]ev[variant(t)](2|Yb−Lum(t)|/(Yb+Lum(t)))

Note that one might also include other characteristics such as the fontstyle (e.g. italic). The particular methods for evaluating emphasisprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining emphasis should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing document style characteristicswith respect to emphasis; such that the present invention is directed tonot only in the particular method of determining emphasis, but also inthe much broader concept of using emphasis measures in the context ofevaluating document interest and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 64, another parameter or factor used indetermining interest is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's graphical fraction.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, graphical constructsare often used to explain or illustrate concepts and ideas. They alsoadd variety to the content. As such, graphics can make a document moreinteresting, and so, a measure of the graphical content shouldcontribute to the estimation of how interesting the document is.

One simple measure of the graphical contribution is just a count of thegraphical content objects encountered in the document.

An alternative approach is to sum the areas of the bounding boxes thatenclose each of the graphical content objects encountered. This sum canthen be divided by the total area of the document to yield a numberranging between 0 and 1.

A third approach is to examine the graphical content objects in greaterdetail and to count the primitive drawing objects such as lines, curves,rectangles, polygons and ellipses from which they are constructed. Thisapproach gives a better measure of the complexity of the graphic andpossibly a better measure of how interesting that graphic is. The countsfor the various drawing primitives can be weighted to indicate howinteresting that drawing primitive is (for example, an ellipse might beconsidered more interesting than a rectangle) and summed to give anoverall weighted graphic count: g=Σw_(x) g_(x) where g_(x) is the countof the x^(th) type of graphic construct and w_(x) is the weight.

In order to combine the graphic fraction measure with the othercontributions to interest, this weighted count should be converted to anumber ranging between 0 and 1. This can be done as follows:V_(g)=g/(a_(g)+g) where V_(g) is the variety measure and a_(g) is aconstant value about the size of the expected number of graphic drawingprimitives in a typical document.

An alternative is to divide the count of graphic drawing primitives, bya count of the total drawing primitives N_(dp) in the document(including characters and images). This approach removes the dependenceon the document size. V_(g)=g/N_(dp). FIG. 64 illustrates an example ofa high graphical fraction.

The particular methods for evaluating graphic fraction provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining graphic fraction should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing document style characteristics with respectto emphasis; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining graphic fraction, but also in themuch broader concept of using graphic fraction measures in the contextof evaluating document interest and document quality.

Several of the factors that attract attention and catch the viewer'seye, will also serve to hold the attention and interest. One can listthe properties of colorfulness, color dissonance, picture fraction, andnovelty as examples of this joint use. The difference in behaviorbetween attention and interest is one of relative importance or weight.Colorfulness, for example, can be very important in catching the eye,but less important in maintaining interest. Novelty, on the other hand,can be more important to maintaining interest than it is to capturingattention. Methods for estimating the strength of these four measureswere described above.

The particular methods for evaluating colorfulness, color dissonance,picture fraction, and novelty provided herein are exemplary and are notto be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determiningthese measures should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todiffering document color, picture and style characteristics with respectto the measures; such that the present invention is directed to not onlyin the particular method of determining the measures, but also in themuch broader concept of using colorfulness, color dissonance, picturefraction, or novelty measures in the context of evaluating documentinterest and document quality.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 61, is useful inevaluating the document's interest.

More specifically, the interest, as illustrated in FIG. 61, isconsidered a combination of variety, change rate, emphasis, graphicfraction, colorfulness, color dissonance, picture fraction, and/ornovelty. In FIG. 61, the quantized interest value is derived by acombining of the variety, change rate, emphasis, graphic fraction,colorfulness, color dissonance, picture fraction, and/or novelty usingan interest quantizer or combiner circuit 40.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the eye-catchingability quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

Communicability

Another factor contributing to the quality of a document design is howwell that design aids in communicating the information contained withinthe document to the user. The present invention provides a method ofcalculating such a communicability measure.

As with aesthetics and ease-of-use, the approach to quantifyingcommunicability is to evaluate factors identified as contributing to theeffectiveness of the communication. These factors are then combined toform a composite measure. The factors contribute to the quality of thedocument design. If any of the simpler communicability factors isabsent, then the overall ability of the document to communicate isreduced.

Component factors can include legibility, information lightness,technical level, text and image balance, red-green friendliness, ease ofprogression, and/or ease of navigation. Each factor can be defined suchas to produce a value ranging between 0 and 1, where 0 means low or badcommunicability value and 1 means high or good communicability value.These, (and possibly other such factors), can be calculated and combinedto form an overall communicability measure in a manner similar to thatdescribed above for aesthetics. If V_(i) is the value calculated for thei^(th) rule, then the communicability measure V_(CM) is formed as afunction E of these contributions: V_(CM)=E(V_(L), V_(il), V_(tl),V_(tib), V_(rg), V_(ep). . . V_(en))

The combining function E can be as simple as a weighted average of thecontributions, but because any bad contributor can lead to a poorcommunicating document, no matter how good the others are, a linearcombination is not preferred. An alternative is to use:V_(CM)=(Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p))^(−1/p)−d Here d is a number slightlylarger than 0. The closer the value of d to 0, the more strongly a badvalue will cancel all other values. The w_(i) factors are the weightsthat specify the relative importance of each rule; they should sum to 1.The exponent p introduces a nonlinearity that can also increase thestrength by which one bad value can overwhelm many good ones. The largerp is, the greater this effect.

Other combining functions are possible as mentioned above. Theparticular methods for evaluating ability of the document to communicateprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining how well the documentcommunicates should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todiffering document characteristics with respect to the ability tocommunicate; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining the ability to communicate, butalso in the much broader concept of using a combination of individualmeasures in the context of evaluating document communicability anddocument quality.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 65, is useful inevaluating the document's communicability.

More specifically, the communicability, as illustrated in FIG. 65, isconsidered a combination of legibility, information lightness, technicallevel, text and image balance, red-green friendliness, ease ofprogression, and/or ease of navigation. In FIG. 65, the quantizedcommunicability value is derived by a combining of the legibility,information lightness, technical level, text and image balance,red-green friendliness, ease of progression, and/or ease of navigationusing a communicability quantizer or combiner circuit 50.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for thecommunicability quantization process, this process may also be performedin software by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization isnot limited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

It is further noted that a combination of measures, as illustrated inFIG. 66, is useful in evaluating the document's legibility.

More specifically, the legibility, as illustrated in FIG. 66, isconsidered a combination of decipherability, line retrace, relative lineseparation, and/or quadding. In FIG. 66, the quantized legibility valueis derived by a combining of the decipherability, line retrace, relativeline separation, and/or quadding using a legibility quantizer orcombiner circuit 51.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the legibilityquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one of the first andforemost factors in estimating a document's communication effectivenessis the legibility of its text. Legibility measures the ease of followingand recognizing the words of the document when reading. Legibility isitself a property that can be broken down into contributing components.As noted above, chief among these components is decipherability, lineretrace, relative line separation, and/or quadding. Other factors thatmight also be considered include the word and character spacing and theuse of hyphenation.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 67, is useful inevaluating the document's decipherability.

More specifically, the decipherability, as illustrated in FIG. 67, isconsidered a combination of display device properties, font, characterfamiliarity, and/or luminance contrast. In FIG. 67, the quantizedlegibility value is derived by a combining of the display deviceproperties, font, character familiarity, and/or luminance contrast usinga decipherability quantizer or combiner circuit 52.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for thedecipherability quantization process, this process may also be performedin software by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization isnot limited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, decipherability, themost complex of the legibility factors, measures the ability torecognize the letter shapes. It can itself be further broken down intosimpler pieces. As noted above, factors that contribute to thedecipherability include the display device, the font, the characterfamiliarity, and/or the luminance contrast.

The properties of the display device and the font may often beconsidered together; that is, one determines how decipherable aparticular font is on a particular device. For example, fonts withserifs are, as a rule, easier to decipher than san serif fonts; but on adevice that cannot effectively produce serifs, this may not be true. Thefont family, font size, font weight, font style, and font variant allcan contribute to the decipherability.

An approach to dealing with the effect of font specification and devicechoice is to measure by experiment the decipherability (the ability tocorrectly determine the character presented) for a fully specified fonton a particular device. This measurement can then be handled as a fontproperty. Given the font specification one can then look up the font'sdecipherability contribution in a font table (df=DF[fontspecification]).

If the font is to be displayed on the same type of device as was usedfor the measurement, the font contribution will not require furtheradjustment for the device. However, if a different display device typeis used, then some sort of adjustment is needed. For example, fonts are,in general, much more decipherable when printed on paper than whenpresented on a CRT display. An example of an adjustment to the fontdecipherability is to multiply it by an adjustment factor ad for thedisplay device.

One way to determine the adjustment factor is as a function of thesmallest font size that the device is capable of effectively presenting.The function could, for example, be the ratio of the smallest effectivetext size for the device used in measuring the font decipherability tothe smallest effective text size for the display to actually be used.For example, if the font properties were measured on a CRT that couldeffectively display only 8-point or larger fonts, but was to be printedon paper that could support 4-point fonts or larger, then the deviceadjustment factor should be 2. One may wish to adjust this factoraccording to the font size actually used because the effect of thedisplay may be less important for large text.

The ease in correctly deciphering a character depends upon thefamiliarity with it. Reading all caps is harder than reading normaltext. Numbers and punctuation characters each have their own degree ofdifficulty. Thus, another adjustment factor ac for the familiarity of acharacter should be multiplied in. This adjustment factor can be foundfrom a table indexed by the character code.

The contrast of the character with the background also contributes tothe decipherability. It is harder to decipher light yellow characters ona white background than to decipher black ones. A third adjustmentfactor is the luminance contrast that can be calculated as was describedabove for locatability: al=2|Yb−Yt|/(Yb+Yt) where Yb is the luminance ofthe background and Yt is the luminance of the text.

The overall decipherability for a character is therefore given by: dc=dfad ac al

An average overall decipherability d, for a string of text, can be foundby finding the sum of the decipherability measures for each character inthe string and then dividing by the total count of characters in thestring.

The particular methods for evaluating decipherability provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining decipherability should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing document text characteristics with respectto decipherability; such that the present invention is directed to notonly in the particular method of determining decipherability, but alsoin the much broader concept of using decipherability measures in thecontext of evaluating document legibility, communicability and documentquality.

As illustrated in FIG. 68, another parameter or factor used indetermining legibility is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's line retrace.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second factorcontributing to text legibility is the length of the text lines. Thereis some cost in moving the eye from the end of one line to the start ofthe next, but the cost increases with the length of the line. This costis included by multiplying the decipherability by a line retrace factorr. An example of a function that can be used for this factor is:r=B/(n²+B) where B is a constant (with value on the order of 3600) and nis the average number of characters per line.

In FIG. 68, the retracing of the group of lines 1101 makes it moredifficult for the reader to find the next line due to the long length ofthe text line. On the other hand, in FIG. 68, the retracing of the groupof lines 1102 makes it easier for the reader to find the next line dueto the short length of the text line.

The particular methods for evaluating line retrace characteristics withrespect to legibility provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining lineretrace effects on legibility should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to differing document text line characteristics with respectto line retrace and legibility; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining lineretrace characteristics, but also in the much broader concept of usingline retrace measures in the context of evaluating document legibility,communicability and document quality.

As illustrated in FIG. 69, another parameter or factor used indetermining legibility is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's relative line separation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the thirdcontribution to legibility is the relative line separation. Increasingthe separation between line acts to improve legibility. It makes iteasier for the eye to track correctly from the end of a line to thestart of the next line. The effect of lines separation is included bymeans of a line separation factor s. An example of a function that canbe used is as follows: s=y/(y+g) where g is a constant (e.g. 0.1) thatcontrols how legibility improves with line separation, and y is a biasedrelative separation defined by: y=(hL−hf)/hf+bs where hL is the heightof the line (baseline to baseline) hf is the height of the font and bsis a small biasing term (e.g. 0.1) to indicate just how far lines mustoverlap before they become unreadable.

In FIG. 69, the relative line separation of the group of lines 1101makes it more difficult for the reader to find the next line due to theclosely packed text lines. On the other hand, in FIG. 69, the relativeline separation of the group of lines 1102 makes it easier for thereader to find the next line due to the widely spaced text lines.

The particular methods for evaluating relative line separation effect onlegibility provided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered aslimiting in scope. Other methods for determining line separation effectsshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to differing documenttext line spacing characteristics with respect to relative line spacingand legibility; such that the present invention is directed to not onlyin the particular method of determining line spacing, but also in themuch broader concept of using line spacing measures in the context ofevaluating document legibility, communicability and document quality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 70 to 73, another parameter or factor used indetermining legibility is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's quadding.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, legibility is alsoaffected by the quadding (i.e. the alignment and justification of thetext). Left-aligned unjustified text is easiest to read, and justifiedtext is almost as easy. Center-aligned text is more difficult and rightaligned is the hardest of all. A factor for the effect of the quaddingcan be stored in the table and looked up for the legibility calculationof text t. q=Q[quadding(t)]

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from quadding tolegibility provided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered aslimiting in scope. Other methods for determining the quaddingcontribution should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todiffering document text quadding choices with respect to legibility;such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the quadding contribution, but also inthe much broader concept of using quadding measurements in the contextof evaluating document legibility, communicability and document quality.

-   -   The complete legibility calculation is then given by: V_(L)=d r        s q    -   This gives the legibility for a particular text element such as        a paragraph.

To arrive at a legibility measurement for an entire document, one mustmeasure the legibility of each paragraph and then combine them.Combining can be done by a simple average, but it may be preferred touse a non-linear method such that a low legibility score on anyparagraph can result in a lower overall score that would be obtained bya simple average. Methods such as the root of the average of powers thathave been described can be used to achieve this effect.

FIG. 70 illustrates an example of a left aligned document. FIG. 71illustrates an example of a right aligned document. FIG. 72 illustratesan example of a center aligned document. FIG. 73 illustrates an exampleof a justified document.

The particular methods for evaluating document legibility providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the document legibility should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing text characteristicswith respect to legibility; such that the present invention is directedto not only in the particular method of determining the legibility, butalso in the much broader concept of using a combination of individualmeasures in the context of evaluating document legibility,communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it takes time todecipher text and to understand the concepts. In general, a short roadsign communicates more effectively than a long one. The informationlightness, (the inverse of information density), of a document isincluded as another factor in how well it communicates. This factor isnot nearly as important as legibility and is weighted accordingly.

A method for calculating information lightness was described in thediscussion of eye-catching ability.

The particular methods for evaluating information density and lightnessprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining information lightness should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing amounts and areas ofinformation; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining information density or lightness,but also in the concept of using information lightness measures in thecontext of evaluating document communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the ease with whicha document communicates also depends upon the audience for which it wasdesigned. A child's book will probably be easier to follow than atechnical manual. The technical level is a measure that estimates thisintended degree of sophistication. It can be composed from simplemeasures that can include reading ease, number fraction, and/or picturefraction. The presence of graphic constructs may also have an effect onthe technical level, but it is unclear at this time whether the effectis to increase or decrease it. It has therefore not been included inthis example measure.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 74, is useful inevaluating the document's technical level.

More specifically, the technical level, as illustrated in FIG. 74, isconsidered a combination of reading ease, number fraction, and/orpicture fraction. In FIG. 74, the quantized technical level value isderived by a combining of the reading ease, number fraction, and/orpicture fraction using a technical level quantizer or combiner circuit53.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the technicallevel quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, reading ease is awell-known measure of a document's text. An example of a reading easealgorithm is: RE=206.835−0.846 Sy−1.015 W where Sy is the average numberof syllables per 100 words and W is the average number of words persentence.

For the calculation of technical level one wants a reading difficultymeasure, which can be roughly calculated as: Rd=0.85 Sy+W

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from reading ease totechnical level provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thereading ease contribution should be considered within the scope of thepresent invention, for example, a function of measured human responsesto differing document text elements with respect to reading ease; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining the reading ease contribution, but also in themuch broader concept of using reading ease measures in the context ofevaluating document technical level, communicability and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, words are easier tocomprehend than numbers; a large table of numbers is typically much moredifficult to grasp than an equal quantity of words. To capture this,calculate the number fraction Fn, measure the ratio of numbers to thetotal of numbers and words.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from number fractionto technical level provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thenumber fraction contribution should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to differing amounts of numbers with respect to technicallevel; such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the number fraction contribution, butalso in the much broader concept of using number fraction measures inthe context of evaluating document technical level, communicability anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, pictures are used toaid understanding. The use of pictures reduces the technical levelmeasure. Picture fraction was defined above as: Fp=Ap/Ad where Ap is thearea of the pictures and Ad is the total area of the document.

One actually needs the inverse behavior of the picture fraction, so thatas Fp increases, the technical level decreases. Using Fnp=1−Fp ispossible, but a few images can make a big difference in the technicallevel, while as more images are added, the benefits may fall off. Thus abetter choice is a nonlinear function such as: Fnp=1/(ap+Fp) where ap isa constant near 1.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from picture fractionto technical level provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thepicture fraction contribution should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to differing amounts of pictorial elements in a document withrespect to technical level; such that the present invention is directedto not only in the particular method of determining the picture fractioncontribution, but also in the much broader concept of using picturefraction measures in the context of evaluating document technical level,communicability and document quality.

The technical level measure can then be computed as: Tl=Rd Fn Fnp

However, Rd (and therefore Tl) is not limited to range only between 0and 1. This can be remedied by the function: V_(tl)=Tl/(atl+Tl) whereatl is a positive constant.

The particular methods for evaluating document technical level providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the document technical level should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to technical level; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the technical level, but also in the much broader concept ofusing a combination of individual measures in the context of evaluatingdocument technical level, communicability and document quality.

As illustrated in FIGS. 75 to 77, another parameter or factor used indetermining communicability is the measurement and quantization of thedocument's text and image balance.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when consideringtechnical level, it was assumed that the more images, the lower thelevel (although with diminishing returns). But for communicability, thisrule may not apply in general. If a document is solely composed ofimages without any textual explanation it may be difficult to be sure ofthe author's message. A rule of design is that ideally about equalamounts of document area should be devoted to text and to illustration.The difference between the areas is a measure of the unbalance, and aninverse can be applied to give a balance measure. For example, if thetotal area devoted to text is At and the total area devoted to picturesis Ap then a measure of the text and image balance is given by:Vtib=1−|At−Ap|/(At+Ap)

FIG. 75 illustrates an example of poor text and image balance. FIG. 76illustrates an example of poor text and image balance. FIG. 77illustrates an example of good text and image balance.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from text and imagebalance to communicability provided herein are exemplary and are not tobe considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thetext and image balance contribution should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing ratios of document text and image elementswith respect to communicability; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining the textand image balance contribution, but also in the much broader concept ofusing text and image balance measures in the context of evaluatingdocument communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another aspect ofhow well a document communicates is its ability to serve viewers withhandicaps or impairments. An example of this is whether the document canbe used by the fraction of men who are red-green colorblind. One elementof red-green friendliness is checking that an object's color and itsbackground color differ by more than just a red-green contrast.Luminance contrast and blue-yellow contrast are the mechanisms by whichthe colorblind can distinguish the foreground objects from background.Step through the document examining the foreground and background colorsfor each object. If a color is specified by its red, green and bluecomponents (R, G, B), then the luminance and luminance contrast CY canbe calculated as described above.

The blue-yellow contrast can be calculated from the S chrominancecomponent, defined as: S=(R+G)/2−B

The blue-yellow contrast is calculated similarly to the luminance caseas: Cby=2|Sf−Sb|/(2+Sf+Sb) where Sf and Sb are the foreground andbackground S chrominance components respectively.

The red-green friendliness of an object can be estimated by combiningthe luminance and blue-yellow chrominance contrast components:Frg=(CY+Cby)/2

A weighted average can also be used to combine the contrast components.

For the entire document some mechanism is needed for combining thered-green friendliness values for all document objects. One way to dothis is to average the values weighted by the corresponding objectareas. If Frg_(i) is the red-green friendliness of the i^(th) object andA_(i) is its area, then the average would be given by: V_(rg)=(ΣFrg_(i)A_(i))/Σ A_(i) where the sums are over all objects.

However, a single small object or set of objects that are difficult todecipher can have a large impact on the overall understanding of thedocument. Thus, some method other that weighting by area may bepreferred for combining friendliness values. An alternative is to lookfor the minimum value as in: V_(rg)=MIN(Frg_(i))

A third approach combines features of the above two methods. The valuesare weighted by area, but values are raised to a power in a way thatemphasizes low values.V_(rg)=((Σ(drg+Frg_(j))^(−p)A_(i))/ΣA_(i))^(−1/p)−drg where drg is apositive constant near zero and p is a positive power 1 or greater.

Other methods of combining the friendliness values are also possible.The particular methods for evaluating contribution from red-greenfriendliness to communicability provided herein are exemplary and arenot to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determiningthe red-green friendliness or other document characteristics thatsupport users with handicaps should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured color-blindhuman responses to differing color with respect to communicability; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining the red-green friendliness contribution, or otherhandicap compensation characteristic, but also in the much broaderconcept of using handicap compensation measures in the context ofevaluating document communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one more propertythat has a bearing on the communicability of a document is the ease ofprogression, as illustrated in FIG. 78. Ease of progression measures thedifficulty in progressing from one document component to the nextcomponent in logical order; for example, in moving from the bottom ofone column to the top of the next. An estimation of the ease ofprogression is calculated as a composite of several properties, each ofwhich aids in the progression process. These properties includedistinguishability, group identity, spatial coherence, list bullets,progression links, headings, alignment, white space, consistency ofscan, and/or consistency of order.

These contributing factors are combined using a weighted average sincethey are not all equally important.V_(ep)=w_(ds)V_(ds)+w_(gi)V_(gi)+w_(sc)V_(sc)+w_(lb)V_(lb)+w_(plk)V_(plk)+w_(hd)V_(hd)+w_(al)V_(al)+w_(ws)V_(ws)+w_(cs)V_(cs)+w_(co)V_(co)where the w's are the weights and the V's are the contributing factors.

Note that alternative methods of combination are possible. Theparticular methods for evaluating document ease of progression providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the document ease of progression should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to ease of progression; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the ease of progression, but also in the much broaderconcept of using a combination of individual measures in the context ofevaluating document ease of progression, communicability and documentquality.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 78, is useful inevaluating the document's ease of progression.

More specifically, the ease of progression, as illustrated in FIG. 78,is considered a combination of distinguishability, group identity,spatial coherence, list bullets, progression links, headings, alignment,white space, consistency of scan, and/or consistency of order. In FIG.78, the quantized ease of progression value is derived by a combining ofthe distinguishability, group identity, spatial coherence, list bullets,progression links, headings, alignment, white space, consistency ofscan, and/or consistency of order using an ease of progression quantizeror combiner circuit 54.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the ease ofprogression quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, thedistinguishability indicating how well one can distinguish an elementfrom its neighbors, the group identity property indicating how easy itis to tell which objects belong as part of a logical group and which donot, the spatial coherence property that measures how closely packedtogether the members of a group are, and headings that describe thelogical structure, were defined above in the discussion of the groupcontribution to ease of use. These factors also contribute to how wellthe document communicates, but with weights to reflect differentrelative importance. Spatial Coherence is singled out here because ithas particular relevance to ease of progression and one may wish to giveits contribution a different weight form that entering via groupidentity.

The discussion of headings measured above combined headings, listbullets and list numbers all as one measure, but one can leave out thechecks for list bullets and numbers and adapt the method to look atheadings alone. This could allow headings and list bullets to becalculated separately and weighted independently.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution fromdistinguishability, group identity, and headings to ease of progressionprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining the these contributions shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to distinguishability, group identity, orheadings; such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining these contributions, but also in themuch broader concept of using distinguishability, group identity and/orheading measures in the context of evaluating document ease ofprogression, communicability, and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, bullets and numbersin lists help to identify the list elements and to progress throughthem. Documents that use bulleted and/or numbered lists should be easierto progress through that those that do not. A method to calculate ameasure for this property is to count the total number of list bulletsNlb or numbers Nln and divide by the total number of list elements Nle.V_(lb)=(Nlb+Nln)/Nle

Since there is less chance of confusing two list numbers than confusingtwo list bullets, one may wish to weight the benefits of list numbershigher than bullets. Weighting the counts of bullets and numbersdifferently when they are combined into the numerator of the ratio tototal list elements can easily do this. Vlb=(alb Nlb+aln Nln)/Nle wherealb and aln are the constant weights applied to the count of bullets andcount of list numbers.

Alternatively, one may wish to calculate separate and independentmeasures for the fraction of bulleted elements and the fraction ofnumbered elements.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from list bullets andnumbers to ease of progression and communicability provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the text and image balance contribution shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing list bullet and numberspecifications with respect to ease of progression and communicability;such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the text and image balancecontribution, but also in the much broader concept of using list bulletand number measures in the context of evaluating document ease ofprogression, communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, internal references(such as “continued on page 7”) serve to guide the reader when theintended progression differs from basic convention. Electronic documentscan include hyperlink forms that conduct the same function of guidingthe reader. A simple measure of how helpful the document is in guidingthe reader is just a count of such hyperlinks and/or references NL. Thiscount should be divided by some measure of the size of the document(such as the number of content objects NO) in order to get a linkdensity. V_(plk)=NL/NO

A better measure may be obtained by dividing the count of the referencesby a count of all the points at which the progression does not followthe typical scan order NSO. The conventional western scan order is thatthe next logical content element should be aligned with and to the rightor below the current object. One can examine the positions of thecontent elements in their logical order and count the instances whenthis rule is not followed. These are the cases where a reference toredirect the reader would be most helpful and one can calculate theratio of references to breaks in scan order. This will typically be anumber between 0 and 1, but is not guaranteed to be confined to values 1or less. To restrict the range, function such as those used above forconfining the range can be used, but in this case a simple clamping thevalue to 1 should be sufficient. V_(plk)=MINIMUM(1, NL/NSO)

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from progressionlinks to ease of progression and communicability provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the progression link contribution should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to the presence of progression linkspecifications with respect to ease of progression and communicability;such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the progression link contribution, butalso in the much broader concept of using progression link measures inthe context of evaluating document ease of progression, communicabilityand document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is easier tofollow the conventional rules of progression (e.g. the next logicalelement is located directly below the current element) if the elementsare aligned. This makes it clear just which element is below and whichis to the right of the current element. A measure of the documentalignment V_(al) was described above in the discussion of documentaesthetics.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from alignment toease of progression and communicability provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the alignment contribution should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing alignment specifications with respect toease of progression and communicability; such that the present inventionis directed to not only in the particular method of determining thealignment contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingalignment measures in the context of evaluating document ease ofprogression, communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, documents with lotsof white space typically are less crowded. It is easier to distinguishand follow the elements. Thus, a high white space amount can provide asmall contribution to the overall ease of progression. The non-whitespace area can be estimated by totaling the areas of the content objects(A_(i) for content object i). The total object area can be scaled by thetotal document area Ad. V_(ws)=(Ad−ΣA_(i))/Ad

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from white space toease of progression and communicability provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the white space contribution should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to differing white space specifications with respect toease of progression and communicability; such that the present inventionis directed to not only in the particular method of determining thewhite space contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingwhite space measures in the context of evaluating document ease ofprogression, communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one of theconventions for progression through western documents is the scanpositioning of left to right, top to bottom. This is the conventionfollowed by text, but it can also be applied to other objects (such asthe panes in a comic book). For this convention, one expects the itemsto have about the same height and to be aligned in rows. The left edgeof the rows should be vertically aligned. One can construct a measurethat indicates the deviation from this rule. The inverse of thisdeviation measure then gives the adherence to the rule.

Step through the document elements in their logical order. For eachelement find a bounding box that contains the object and indicates theposition of its top yt, bottom yb, left side xl and right side xr. Asone steps through the objects, the vertical position of the new object(ytn, ybn) is compared with that of the old object (yto, ybo). Objectsshould be placed to the right and below, but not above, so a deviationamount should be added to a deviation accumulation dcs for the degree towhich the new object is above the old. The following expression doesthis (assuming the y coordinates increase as one moves down the page):if ytn<yto and ybn<ybothen dcs=dcs+(yto−ytn)*(ybo−ybn)/(ybo−ytn)²

If the new object is vertically in the same row as the old object, thenone expects it to be located to the right of the old object. The degreeto which it is left of the old object is the amount by which it deviatesfrom the scan order model. One can calculate this deviation with thefollowing expression:if ytn<=ybo and xln<xlo and xrn<xrothen dcs=dcs+(xlo−xln)*(xro−xrn)/(xro−xln)²

These calculations are carried out for each consecutive pair of contentelements as one steps through the document in logical order. The resultis then normalized by dividing by the number of pair comparisons (thenumber of elements minus 1) and clamped to 1. The inverse is thenreturned.Vcs=1−MINIMUM(1, dcs/(NO−1))

FIG. 79 illustrates an example of the placement for consistency of scan.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof scan to ease of progression and communicability provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the consistency of scan contribution should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing layouts of orderedcontent with respect to ease of progression and communicability; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining the consistency of scan contribution, but also inthe much broader concept of using consistency of scan measures in thecontext of evaluating document ease of progression, communicability anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an alternative modelfor progression order is top to bottom, left to right. This is, forexample, the order typically used for layout of a story in a newspaperor magazine. One moves down a column to the bottom, and then shifts tothe top of the next column to the right. One can calculate deviationfrom this ordering in a manner similar from the scan orderingcalculation above. In this case, however, one never wants to place anobject to the left of a previous object, and objects in the same columnshould not be placed above previous items. The corresponding tests areas follows:if xln<xlo and xrn<xrothen dco=dco+(xlo−xln)*(xro−xrn)/(xro−xln)²andif xln<=xro and ytn<yto and ybn<ybothen dco=dco+(yto−ytn)*(ybo−ybn)/(ybo−ytn)²andVco=1−MINIMUM(1, dco/(NO−1))

Note that an alternative to adding the consistency of scan andconsistency of order terms independently to the ease of progressionexpression as shown above is to first combine the two measures and thenuse the result in the ease of progression. The reason for doing this isthat the two measures could be combined in such a way, that if either ofthem had a high value, then the combined value would be high. In otherwords, the document would need to follow either one or the other of thelayout models, but not necessarily both.

FIG. 80 illustrates an example of the placement for consistency oforder.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof order to ease of progression and communicability provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the consistency of order contribution should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing layouts of orderedcontent with respect to ease of progression and communicability; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining the consistency of order contribution, but also inthe much broader concept of using consistency of order measures in thecontext of evaluating document ease of progression, communicability anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a property similarto ease of progression is ease of navigation. While progression measuresthe ease or difficulty of moving through the document in the orderintended by the creator, ease of navigation measures the ability tolocate an arbitrary element of the document. In estimating the ease ofnavigation one looks mainly for those features that can aid in findingan element or section. In the example method provided here includesheadings, list bullets and numbers, running heads and page numbers,internal links, and/or group identity. These properties each contributeto the ease of navigation and an overall measure can be created from aweighted average. V_(en)=w_(hd) V_(hd)+w_(lb)V_(lb)+w_(rh)V_(rh)+w_(Ink)V_(Ink)+w_(gi)V_(gi) where the w's are the weights and the V's are thevalue properties. Note that alternative methods of combination, as wellas additional contributing factors, are possible. Many of the propertieswere also used for ease of progression, but the weights used incalculating the ease of navigation may be different.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 81, is useful inevaluating the document's ease of navigation.

More specifically, the ease of navigation, as illustrated in FIG. 81, isconsidered a combination of headings, list bullets and numbers, runningheads and page numbers, internal links, and/or group identity. In FIG.81, the quantized ease of navigation value is derived by a combining ofthe headings, list bullets and numbers, running heads and page numbers,internal links, and/or group identity using an ease of navigationquantizer or combiner circuit 55.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the ease ofnavigation quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

The particular methods for evaluating document ease of navigationprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining the document ease of navigationshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to ease of navigation; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the ease of navigation, but also in the much broader conceptof using a combination of individual measures in the context ofevaluating document ease of navigation, communicability and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, page numbers canhelp greatly in navigating a document. For running heads, a measure oftheir value is the number of different heads divided by the number ofpages. One can find this by examining the document for the heads andmaking a list of the distinct ones. Then one can count the number ofheads in the list. For page numbers, one just asks whether or not theyare present and if they are, one can add a contribution to the measure.V_(rh)=wh Nh/Np+(1−wh) Bpn where wh is the weight given to runningheads, Nh is the number of distinct heads, Np is the number of pages inthe document, and Bpn is 1 if there are page numbers and 0 otherwise.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the page numbersto ease of navigation and communicability provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from page numbers should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to the presence or absence of page numbers withrespect to ease of navigation and communicability; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the page number contribution, but also in the much broaderconcept of using page number measures in the context of evaluatingdocument ease of navigation, communicability and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, ease of navigationis strongly related to the locatability property for group elements thatwas described above in the discussion on the ease of use of groups. Themeasures of headings, list bullets and numbers and internal links can becaptured as described.

In the discussion on ease of progression one measured the fraction ofprogressive links. For ease of navigation one wants to count the totalnumber of internal links or references (not just the progressive ones).This will include the entries in a table of contents and in an index aswell as references or links within the main body of the document. Assuggested above, one can normalize the count by dividing by the numberof content objects: V_(Ink)=MINIMUM(1, NLT/NO) where NLT is the totalnumber of internal links and NO is the number of content objects.

In trying to find one's way around in a document it is helpful to knowwhen one group of content ends and another begins. Thus, there should bea contribution to the ease of navigation from the group identitymeasure. This is another measure that is also used in the ease ofprogression estimation. A measure of group identity was described in theabove discussion of ease of use of groups. Group identity is calculatedfrom other measures such as spatial coherence, the presence of bordersor backgrounds, style uniformity, and alignment of elements.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from headings bulletsinternal links and group identity to ease of navigation andcommunicability provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thecontribution from these properties should be considered within the scopeof the present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to different document characteristics with respect to theseproperties, ease of navigation and communicability; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the contributions, but also in the much broader concept ofusing heading, bullet, internal link and group identity measures in thecontext of evaluating document ease of navigation, communicability anddocument quality.

Comfort

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another propertythat contributes to the quality of a document is the comfort level atwhich the document is perceived. A method for quantifying the documentcomfort level will be described next.

Comfort is calculated as a combination of simpler properties or rules.Violating any of the component rules can result in discomfort and ruinthe overall comfort of the document layout. Component rules can includelimitation of font forms, limitation of colors, grouping number,neatness, decipherability, non-intimidating, conventionality, colorharmony, color appropriateness, consistency of luminance, and/orconsistency of size. Each rule is defined to produce a value rangingbetween 0 and 1 such that 0 means low or bad comfort value and 1 meanshigh or good comfort value. These (and possibly other such rules) can becalculated and combined to form an overall comfort measure. If Vi is thevalue calculated for the i^(th) rule, then the comfort measure V_(c) isformed as a function E of these contributions: V_(c)=E(V_(Lf), V_(Lc),V_(gn), V_(nt), V_(dc), V_(ni), V_(cv), V_(ch), V_(ca), V_(cl), . . .V_(CSZ))

The combining function E can be as simple as a weighted average of thecontributions, but because any bad contributor can ruin the comfort nomatter how good the others are, a linear combination is not preferred.An alternative is to use: V_(c)=[Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p)]^(−1/p)−d. Thew_(i) factors are the weights that specify the relative importance ofeach rule; they should sum to 1. The exponent p introduces thenonlinearity that can make one bad value overwhelm many good ones. Thelarger p is, the greater this effect. The constant d is a positivenumber near 0 and guards against division by 0.

Other combining functions are possible; for example, one could take theproduct of the contributions. If weighting of the contribution isdesired, this can be done by exponentiation (using a different set ofweight values). V_(c)=ΠV_(i) ^(wi′)

Note that the set of rules chosen is illustrative of how a comfortmeasure can be constructed. Other factors contributing to comfort existand could certainly be included in a more sophisticated quantificationof comfort. The particular methods for evaluating document comfortprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining the document comfort should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to the feeling of comfort; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the comfort level, but also in the much broader concept ofusing a combination of individual measures in the context of evaluatingdocument comfort level and document quality.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 82, is useful inevaluating the document's comfort.

More specifically, the comfort, as illustrated in FIG. 82, is considereda combination of limitation of font forms, limitation of colors,grouping number, neatness, decipherability, non-intimidating,conventionality, color harmony, color appropriateness, consistency ofluminance, and/or consistency of size. In FIG. 82, the quantized comfortvalue is derived by a combining of the limitation of font forms,limitation of colors, grouping number, neatness, decipherability,non-intimidating, conventionality, color harmony, color appropriateness,consistency of luminance, and/or consistency of size using a comfortquantizer or combiner circuit 60.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the comfortquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, fonts have manyproperties that can be selected to achieve different effects. Fontfamilies can be chosen to give the document different feelings, fromformal to playful, light to serious, modern to classical. Font size canaffect the cost and legibility. Font weights such as bold, can conveyimportance; font styles, such as italic, can indicate that it isspecial. Font variants such as strikethrough or outlined can add furthermeaning.

If, however, a single document contains too many different font forms,the result is disquieting. Such “ransom note” documents are consideredbad style because they lead to discomfort in the reader. The firstfactor that shall be considered as contributing to viewer comfort is thelimitation of the number of font forms. Any change in the fontspecification (family, size, weight, style or variant) yields a newform. The document can be examined, and the number of distinct fontforms Nf can be counted. This can be converted to a number ranging fromnear 0 (for the case of many font forms) to 1 (for when there is no morethan a single font form) by the expression: V_(Lt)=1/MAXIMUM(1, Nf)

However, more sophisticated measures are possible. One can, for example,include as part of the measure just how different the fonts are from oneanother. This can be done by first constructing a list, F, of all thefont forms that appear in the document. One can then compare every fontform in the list to every other font form and accumulate a measure oftheir differences. For fonts of different sizes, one can make themeasure a function of the size difference (such as its absolute value).For font weights, one can add to the measure a function of the weightdifference. Since weights are usually limited to a small set of choices,tables FW[weight(f1), weight(f2)] can be used to describe the weightdifference function. Contributions due to differences in family styleand variant can also be captured in tables, or a single constant amountaf can be added whenever any difference in any of these propertiesoccurs. Comparing every font form to every other font form results indifferences accumulating on the order of the square of the number offonts. To be more in line with the first simpler measure, one can divideby the number of fonts. The pseudocode to calculate this alternatemeasure would then look as follows: fd = 1  for f1 from 1 to Nf   for f2from f1 to Nf    fd = fd + | size(f1) − size(f2) | + Fw[weight(f1),weight(f2)]     if family(f1) differs from family(f2)      or style(f1)differs from style(f2)      or variant(f1) differs from variant(f2)    then fd = fd + af   end of f2 loop  end of f1 loop fd = fd / NfV_(lt) = 1 / (bf + fd)

In the last line of the above code, bf is a small positive number thatcontrols how quickly the measure falls off with increasing fontdifferences.

One further possible extension of the measure may be considered. Sincethe font differences will have a greater impact if the separate fontforms are mixed together in the same paragraph than if they are spreadover different paragraphs, one can count the number of font forms perparagraph and average this over the paragraphs of the document. Thefinal accumulated difference measure fd can then be scaled by theaverage fonts-per-paragraph before the inversion to form V_(Lt).

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the limitationof font forms to document comfort level provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from limitation of font forms should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to the number of font forms withrespect to feeling on comfort; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining thelimitation of font forms contribution, but also in the much broaderconcept of using limitation of font form measures in the context ofevaluating document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, just as too manyfonts are considered to be poor style, so are too many colors. Adocument with lots of colors is considered garish. The viewer tries tomake sense of the colors and a large number makes this a difficult anduncomfortable task. A large number of colors will tire the eye. A simplemeasure of the effect is just a count of the number of different colorsfound within the document. This can be determined by stepping throughthe document, identifying the colors and saving them in a list (or otherdata structure such as a tree or hash table). As each color isencountered it can be compared to the colors already in the list todetermine whether or not it has been seen before. If it is a new colorthen it is added to the list. After the document has been processed, thenumber of entries in the list can be counted to give the total number ofcolors Nc. This can be converted to a number ranging from near 0 (formany colors) to 1 (for no more than a single color) by the expression:V_(lc)=1/ MAXIMUM(1, Nc)

The above scheme works for constant, uniform colors such as typicallyused in graphics, but does not address how to handle color sweeps or thehuge number of colors seen in pictorial images. For color sweeps one canrestrict the list entry to only the first and last colors of the sweep.For pictorial images, one can ignore them altogether, or extract a fewcolors from the image by subsampling, or extract a few colors by acluster analysis of the image values in color space.

The test for whether a color is already in the list does not have to bea strict match. One can compare colors by computing the distance betweenthem in color space and comparing the distance to a threshold. If thedistance is below the threshold, the colors can be considered closeenough to match, and a new color list entry is not needed.

The comfort can depend on the choice of colors as well as the number ofthem. One might therefore compare the colors of the document pair-wiseand accumulate a measure of their compatibility. A simple value toaccumulate would be the distance between the colors in a color space,but a better measure of the affect on comfort would be the colordissonance of the pair. Since comparing colors pair-wise accumulatesvalues as the square of the number of colors, one can divide the totalby the number of colors in the document to get a measure that varieslinearly with the number of colors.

Not every color is equally tiring on the eye and more sophisticatedmeasures can take this into account. Strongly saturated colors have moreof an effect than neutral ones. There are several possible ways tocalculate an approximate saturation value that can be used in augmentingits discomfort contribution. These were described in the abovediscussion on colorfulness under the eye-catching ability property.

For each color in the list, one can add a contribution to a total colordiscomfort measure. The contribution can be a function of thesaturation. For example, for the i^(th) color with saturation c_(i), thecontribution might be ac+c_(i) where ac is a constant value representingthe effect of just having another color, and c_(i)is the additionaldiscomfort due to that color's saturation. dc=ac Nc+Σc_(i) where dc isthe color discomfort measure.

It is also possible to keep track of the total document area rendered ineach color and include a function of both the saturation and the area inthe augmentation of the discomfort calculation. The idea here is thatthe effect of a large colored area is stronger than the effect of asmall one.

An expression such as: V_(lc)=1/(bc+dc) where bc is a small positiveconstant, can be used to convert the discomfort measure into alimitation of color measure that varies between 0 and 1.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the limitationof colors to document comfort level provided herein are exemplary andare not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from limitation of colors should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to the number of colors withrespect to feeling on comfort; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining thelimitation of colors contribution, but also in the much broader conceptof using limitation of color measures in the context of evaluatingdocument comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, people are morecomfortable with some group sizes than others. A group should not havetoo many or too few elements, and odd numbers are preferred over even.The best size for a group is 3 elements. A simple expression for thecomfort of a group number is: Gc=1/(eg+ag (1−MOD2(eg))) where eg is thenumber of elements in the group, ag is a constant that gives the addeddiscomfort of a even number of elements, and MOD2 is a function thatgive 0 if its argument is even and 1 if it is odd.

For an entire document, one needs some method of averaging the groupingnumber comfort values over all groups. For example, if there are Nggroups in the document and the comfort value of the i^(th) group isGc_(i), then the simple average over all groups yields:V_(gn)=ΣGc_(i)/Ng

More complex averaging schemes are possible. For example, one couldweight the effect of the grouping number comfort differently dependingon the placement of the group within the hierarchy of the document'slogical structure tree.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the groupingnumber to document comfort level provided herein are exemplary and arenot to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determiningthe contribution from the grouping number should be considered withinthe scope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to the number group elements with respect to feeling ofcomfort; such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the grouping number contribution, butalso in the much broader concept of using group size measurements in thecontext of evaluating document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, people are generallymore comfortable with a neat document than with a messy one. One canquantify neatness as a combination of contributing factors. In manycases it is easier to identify a factor that makes a document messy anduses the inverse of such factors. An example of a neatness measure isoffered based on the text neatness, border and background presence,alignment, and/or regularity. Neatness estimates that employ additionalfactors are possible. In combining the component neatness measures,assume that any source of messiness will destroy the overall neatnessOust as was argued for overall comfort).

A similar combining formula can be used.V_(nt)=[Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p)]^(−1/p)−d only now the V_(i) are taken fromthe set V_(tn), V_(bb), V_(al) and V_(rg) for the text neatness,border/background, alignment and regularity. The weights w_(i), andparameters p and d can be different from those used in calculatingcomfort.

The particular methods for evaluating document neatness provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the document neatness should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to differing document characteristics withrespect to the feeling of neatness; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining theneatness level, but also in the much broader concept of using acombination of individual measures in the context of evaluating documentneatness, comfort level and document quality.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 83, is useful inevaluating the document's neatness.

More specifically, the neatness, as illustrated in FIG. 83, isconsidered a combination of text neatness, border and backgroundpresence, alignment, and/or regularity. In FIG. 83, the quantizedneatness value is derived by a combining of the text neatness, borderand background presence, alignment, and/or regularity using a neatnessquantizer or combiner circuit 60.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the neatnessquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an example of howfactors can contribute to neatness, consider the neatness of text. Textneatness can be harmed by the use of some font variants and styles (suchas underscored text or italics). Quoted text is also considered to beless neat than unquoted text. One can step through the documentexamining the text, considering every word, space, and punctuation. Forwords (and punctuation) determine a neatness value based on the fontused (f). Consider the font family, style and variant when estimatingthe font (un)neatness or messiness. These properties can be consideredindependently and look-up tables (Tf, Ts, and Tv) can be used to storethe messiness effect for each. A total messiness measure can collect theeffect of the font choice.mt=mt+Tf[family(f)]+Ts[style(f)]+Tv[variant(f)]

For punctuation, look for quotation marks and add an extra contributionfor the quotation. In general one can add a contribution based on thecharacter code c and a table Tc can store the contribution amounts. Thiscan apply to spaces, letters and numbers as well as punctuation.mt=mt+Tc[c]

The contributions from font and character can be chosen such that thetotal messiness contribution for a character never exceeds 1.

To get an average value for text messiness sum the messiness value foreach character (mt_(i) for the i^(th) character) and divide by the totalnumber of characters Nch. The text neatness is the inverse of themessiness. V_(tn)=1−Σmt_(i)/Nch

FIG. 84 illustrates an example of a neater document. FIG. 85 illustratesan example of a less neat document.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the textneatness to document neatness and comfort level provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the text neatness shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different text styles withrespect to feeling of neatness; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining the textneatness contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingtext neatness measures in the context of evaluating document neatnesslevel, document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the use of bordersand backgrounds can aid in understanding the document's structure andcan add to the document's interest, but it also results in a documentthat is not quite as neat as one without these additions. A documentoffers several opportunities for borders and/or backgrounds. They can befound on each page, or for columns, for sections, tables or figures.Step through the document considering each opportunity for a border orbackground. At each such opportunity check to see if a border or abackground is actually present. If a border is present add the amountvbd to a messiness measure mbb. If a background is present add theamount vbk to mbb. Also count the number of opportunities encounteredNb. The neatness contribution from borders and backgrounds is theinverse of their average messiness. V_(bb)=1−mbb/Nb

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the borders andbackgrounds to document neatness and comfort level provided herein areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the borders andbackgrounds should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todifferent border and background styles with respect to feeling ofneatness and comfort; such that the present invention is directed to notonly in the particular method of determining the border and backgroundcontribution, but also in the much broader concept of using border andbackground measures in the context of evaluating document neatnesslevel, document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an importantcontributor to neatness is the impression that the document componentsare aligned and regularly positioned. These factors were described abovein the discussion on document aesthetics. Using the techniques describedmeasures V_(al) and V_(rg) for document alignment and regularity can becalculated. Note that the weighting factors for their contribution toneatness are likely to be different from the factors used in theircontribution to aesthetics.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the alignmentand regularity to document neatness and comfort level provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the alignment andregularity should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todifferent degrees of alignment and regularity with respect to feeling ofneatness and comfort; such that the present invention is directed to notonly in the particular method of determining the alignment andregularity contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingalignment or regularity measures in the context of evaluating documentneatness level, document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, some text takes morework to decipher and understand than others do. Text printed in italicsor using an abnormal font variant is harder to read. Light colored texton a light background, or dark text on a dark background takes an effortto decipher. This work will tire the reader and make the documentuncomfortable to use. A method for estimating the averagedecipherability of a document V_(dc) was described above in thediscussion on how well a document communicates.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the textdecipherability to document comfort level provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from the text decipherability should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different text style withrespect to decipherability and the feeling comfort; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the text decipherability contribution, but also in the muchbroader concept of using text decipherability measures in the context ofevaluating document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, some documentconstructs can act to intimidate the reader. By noting the degree towhich these factors are present, one can form an intimidation measure.Intimidation acts against comfort, so the inverse of the intimidationfactor should contribute to the comfort estimation. Factors thatintimidate include a low amount of white space, high informationdensity, low legibility, bold text, a low picture fraction, line use,and/or a high technical level. Many of the factors are familiar from IRSforms.

A non-intimidation measure is actually calculated by combining theinverses of the factors that intimidate. To combine the variouscontributions to the document's non-intimidation factor, a simpleweighted average is used, although more complex combination schemes arepossible. V_(in)=Σw_(i) V_(i) where w_(i) are the weights and the V_(i)are the non-intimidation component values V_(ws), V_(il), V_(lg),V_(dc), V_(nb), V_(pf), V_(nl), V_(lt) corresponding to the above listof factors.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 86, is useful inevaluating the document's intimidation.

More specifically, the intimidation, as illustrated in FIG. 86, isconsidered a combination of a low amount of white space, highinformation density, low legibility, bold text, a low picture fraction,line use, and/or a high technical level. In FIG. 86, the quantizedintimidation value is derived by a combining of the a low amount ofwhite space, high information density, low legibility, bold text, a lowpicture fraction, line use, and/or a high technical level using anintimidation quantizer or combiner circuit 62.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the intimidationquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

FIG. 87 is an example of an intimidating document.

The particular methods for evaluating a measure of how intimidating ornon-intimidating a document is provided herein are exemplary and are notto be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thedocument intimidation level should be considered within the scope of thepresent invention, for example, a function of measured human responsesto differing document characteristics with respect to the feeling ofintimidation; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining the intimidation level, but also inthe much broader concept of using a combination of individual measuresin the context of evaluating document intimidation level, documentcomfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, documents that are“open” with lots of white space are not as intimidating as those thatare filled with content. A method for estimating the white spacefraction was described above in the discussion of how well a documentcommunicates.

The non white space area can be estimated by totaling the areas of thecontent objects. The total object area can be scaled by the totaldocument area Ad.V _(ws)=(Ad−ΣA _(i) /Ad

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the white spaceto document intimidation level and comfort level provided herein isexemplary and is not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the white space should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different white space amountswith respect to feeling of intimidation; such that the present inventionis directed to not only in the particular method of determining thewhite-space contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingwhite space measures in the context of evaluating document intimidationlevel, document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, densely packedinformation is intimidating and so inverse of the information densitycan contribute to the non-intimidation measure. Such an informationlightness measure was described above in the discussion of a document'seye-catching ability.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the informationlightness or density to document intimidation level and comfort levelprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining the contribution from theinformation density should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todifferent information and area amounts with respect to feeling ofintimidation; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining the information lightness ordensity contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usinginformation density measures in the context of evaluating documentintimidation level, document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an illegibledocument is intimidating, so legibility should contribute to thenon-intimidation measure. A method for estimating legibility wasdescribed in the above discussion of a document's ability tocommunicate.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the textlegibility to document intimidation level and comfort level, providedherein, are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the contribution from the legibilityshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to different textcharacteristics with respect to legibility and the feeling ofintimidation; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining the legibility contribution, butalso in the much broader concept of using legibility measures in thecontext of evaluating document intimidation level, document comfortlevel and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the use of bold orheavy weight text is intimidating. Since a non-intimidation measure isdesired, one would like to have a text lightness measure (high valuesassociated with light text weights). A method for determining such ameasure is straightforward. Step through the document and examine thetext to see what fonts are used. One can use a table Tl to look up alightness value tl for the weight of the font f. tl=Tl[weight(f)]

If tl_(i) is the lightness value for the i^(th) character, then one canfind an average lightness (non-boldness) value by summing the lightnessvalues and dividing by the total number of characters Nch.V_(nb)=Σtl_(i)/Nch

An alternative approach is to collect the area of the bold or heavy textAb, then divide by the total area of the document Ad and invert.V_(nb)=1−Ab/Ad

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the bold text todocument intimidation level and comfort level, provided herein, areexemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the bold text should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different bold text amounts withrespect to the feeling of intimidation and document comfort level; suchthat the present invention is directed to not only in the particularmethod of determining the bold text contribution, but also in the muchbroader concept of using bold text measures in the context of evaluatingdocument intimidation level, document comfort level and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the presence ofvertical lines can be intimidating, especially thick ones with highcontrast. A method for quantifying the effect of vertical lines is tofirst step through the document and find them. This includes verticallines that are part of borders and also rectangles with the ratio ofwidth to height less than a threshold value. For each line discovered,multiply its area Al by its luminance contrast cl.

Sum all the weighted areas and divide by the area of the document Ad toget a value between 0 and 1. Since the area devoted to vertical lines istypically small this expression understates the effect, but raising itto a fractional power can boost its strength. One then needs to invertthe result to get the non-intimidation contribution. V_(nl)=1−(Σcl_(i)Al_(i)/Ad)^(1/p)

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the verticallines to document intimidation level and comfort level, provided herein,are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the lines should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different line quantities andstyles with respect to the feeling of intimidation and document comfortlevel; such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the vertical line contribution, butalso in the much broader concept of using line measures in the contextof evaluating document intimidation level, document comfort level anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, highly technicalmaterial is intimidating. The measure of technical level includes suchthings as reading ease, the presence of numbers, and the absence ofpictures. A definition of an example technical level measure is givenabove in the discussion of how well a document communicates. Thetechnical level V_(tl) can be inverted for a measure of non-technicallevel that can be used in the non-intimidating calculation.V_(nt)=1−V_(tl)

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the technicallevel to document intimidation level and comfort level, provided herein,are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from the technical level shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different document content withrespect to technical level, the feeling of intimidation and the documentcomfort level; such that the present invention is directed to not onlyin the particular method of determining the technical levelcontribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingtechnical-level measures in the context of evaluating documentintimidation level, document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, people have certainexpectations about document styles. There are conventions that they areaccustomed to. Violating such customs may yield some benefits (such asattracting attention) and incur costs (such as reduced ease of use).Violating convention almost always creates a little discomfort.

Conventionality is defined as the inverse of novelty. A measure ofnovelty was presented above in the discussion of how well a documentholds interest.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the documentconventionality to document comfort level provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from the conventionality should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different document styles withrespect to conventionality and the feeling comfort; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the conventionality contribution, but also in the muchbroader concept of using conventionality measure in the context ofevaluating document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, some combinations ofcolors fit harmoniously together while others clash. Clashing ordissonant colors tire the eye and cause discomfort while harmoniouscolors can sooth the viewer. Color harmony is defined as the inverse ofcolor dissonance, V_(d), which was described above in the discussion ofa document's eye-catching ability. The color harmony is then:V _(ch)=1−V _(d)

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the colorharmony to document comfort level provided herein are exemplary and arenot to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determiningthe contribution from color harmony should be considered within thescope of the present invention, for example, a function of measuredhuman responses to different document color combinations with respect tocolor harmony and the feeling comfort; such that the present inventionis directed to not only in the particular method of determining thecolor harmony contribution, but also in the much broader concept ofusing color harmony measures in the context of evaluating documentcomfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another aspect ofwhat is expected is the appropriateness of the color choices. Thedocument design rule is that large background areas should usedesaturated colors while small foreground objects should use saturatedcolors. One can form a measure of the color inappropriateness bymultiplying each object's area by its saturation. Actually the areashould be measured as a fraction of the total document area Ad in orderto restrict the result to the range of 0 to 1. A large result comes froma large area with a high saturation (which is inappropriate). For anaverage value for the entire document, one must combine the values fromall objects, and with a simple weighting of saturation by area it wouldbe possible to get a measure of inappropriate color use from many smallsaturated foreground objects, when this may actually be appropriate. Abetter measure is to raise the area fraction to a power. This furtherreduces the influence of small objects. This leads to a colorappropriated measure that looks as follows: V_(ca)=1−Σc_(i)(A_(i)/Ad)^(p) where p is a value greater than 1.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from colorappropriateness to document comfort level provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from color appropriateness should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different object colors withrespect to color appropriateness and the feeling comfort; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the color appropriateness contribution, but also in the muchbroader concept of using color appropriateness measures in the contextof evaluating document comfort level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the rule forconsistency of luminance states that for a group of content elements,the dark elements should come first and the lighter elements shouldfollow. Note, however, that the logical structure of a document istypically a tree with each branch node representing a group. Thus themembers of a group are often other groups. The content elements may notbe simple objects with a single color and luminance. The consistency ofluminance rule can still be applied, but the luminance used should bethe average luminance of the subtree group member.

To determine the average luminance of an object, get the luminance ofthe object Lf, the luminance of the background Lb, the area with theforeground color Af and the bounding area of the object Ao. The averageluminance Lav is then: Lav=(Lf Af+Lb(Ao−Af))/Ao

The average luminance for a group of objects is the sum of the averageluminance values for its members weighted by their areas plus thecontribution from the background. If Ag is the bounding area of thegroup, Lav_(i) is the average luminance for the ith group member andA_(i) is the area of that member then the average luminance for thegroup Lavg is: Lavg=Σ Lav_(i)A_(i)+Lb(Ag−Σ A_(i)) )/Ag

To find a measure of the consistency of luminance for a group, stepthrough the members of the group and find the average luminance of eachmember. Compare that luminance to the previous member's luminance and ifthe new luminance is darker than the old then collect the difference.This actually gives a measure of the inconsistency and one can use areciprocal function to convert it to a consistency value ranging between0 and 1. The method is illustrated by the following pseudocode: incon =0 oldlum = AverageLuminance(groupMember(1)) for i = 2 to number of groupmembers  { newlum = AverageLuminance(groupMember(i))   if newlum <oldlum     then incon = incon + oldlum − newlum   oldlum = newlum  } endof loop Vclg = acl / (acl + incon)

Here Vclg is the consistency of luminance value for the group and acl isa small positive constant value.

The above method indicates how to calculate a measure for each node inthe content tree, but does not say how to obtain a collective value forthe tree as a whole. One method for doing this is to form a weightedaverage of all the tree node values, where the weight is a function ofthe depth of the tree. One can also raise the values being combined to anegative power such that a bad consistency value carries the impact ofmany good values. This can be summarized as:V_(cl)=((Σw_(i)(dcl+Vcl_(i))^(−p))/Σw_(i))^(−1/p)−dcl where the sums areover all group nodes in the content tree, w_(i) is the node depthVcl_(i) is the consistency of luminance of the node and dcl is a smallpositive constant and p is a positive value such as 1.

FIG. 88 is an example of consistent luminance. FIG. 89 is an example ofinconsistent luminance.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof luminance to document comfort level provided herein are exemplary andare not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from the consistency of luminance should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different object luminancevalues and ordering with respect to consistency of luminance and thefeeling comfort; such that the present invention is directed to not onlyin the particular method of determining the consistency of luminancecontribution, but also in the much broader concept of using consistencyof luminance measures in the context of evaluating document comfortlevel and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the design rule forconsistency of size is that for a group of content elements, the largeelements should come first and the smaller elements should follow. Tofind a measure of the consistency of size for a group step through themembers of the group and find the bounding size of each member. Comparethat size to the previous member's size and if the new size is biggerthan the old then collect the difference. This actually gives a measureof the inconsistency and one can use a reciprocal function to convert itto a consistency value ranging between 0 and 1. The method isillustrated by the following pseudocode: incon = 0 oldsize =BoundingSize(groupMember(1)) for i = 2 to number of group members  {newsize = BoundingSize (groupMember(i))   if newsize > oldsize    thenincon = incon + newsize − oldsize   oldsize = newsize  } end of loopVcsg = acs / (acs + incon)

Here Vcsg is the consistency of size value for the group and acs is asmall positive constant value.

In considering the members of the group, one may wish to exclude certainspecial members (such as headings) from the size comparisons.

The above method indicates how to calculate a measure for each node inthe content tree, but does not say how to obtain a collective value forthe tree as a whole. One method for doing this is to form a weightedaverage of all the tree node values, where the weight is a function ofthe depth of the tree. One can also raise the values being combined to anegative power such that a bad consistency value carries the impact ofmany good values. This can be summarized as: V_(cs)=((Σw_(i)(dcs+Vcs_(i))^(−p))/Σw_(i))^(−1/p)−dcs where the sums is over allgroup nodes in the content tree, w_(i) is the node depth Vcs_(i) is theconsistency of size of the node and dcs is a small positive constant andp is a positive value such as 1.

FIG. 90 is an example of consistent size. FIG. 91 is an example ofinconsistent size.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof size to document comfort level provided herein are exemplary and arenot to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determiningthe contribution from the consistency of size should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to different object sizes and orderings withrespect to consistency of size and the feeling comfort; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the consistency of size contribution, but also in the muchbroader concept of using consistency of size measures in the context ofevaluating document comfort level and document quality.

Convenience

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, another documentproperty that contributes to its quality is the convenience level orease of use at which the document is perceived. A method for quantifyingthe document convenience level will next be described. As with otherproperties, convenience is calculated as a combination of simplerproperties or factors. Violating any of the component factors can resultin inconvenience and ruin the overall convenience of the documentlayout. Component factors can include consistency, legibility,disability proof, ease of navigation, ease of progression,searchability, locatability, viewable fraction, single window display,and/or transmission and processing time.

Each factor is defined to produce a value ranging between 0 and 1 suchthat 0 means a low or bad convenience value and 1 means a high or goodconvenience value. These, (and possibly other such rules), can becalculated and combined to form an overall convenience measure. If V_(i)is the value calculated for the i^(th) rule, then the conveniencemeasure V_(cv) is formed as a function E of these contributions:V_(cv)=E(V_(cns), V_(lg), V_(dp), V_(en), V_(ep), V_(sh), V_(lo),V_(vf), V_(sw), . . . V_(tm))

The combining function E can be as simple as a weighted average of thecontributions, but because any bad contributor can ruin the convenienceno matter how good the others are, a linear combination is notpreferred. An alternative is to use:V_(cv)=[Σw_(i)(d+Vi)^(−p)]^(−1/p)−d. The w_(i) factors are the weightsthat specify the relative importance of each rule; they should sum to 1.The exponent p introduces the nonlinearity that can make one bad valueoverwhelm many good ones. The larger p is the greater this effect. Theconstant d is a positive number near 1 and guards against division by 0.

Other combining functions are possible; for example, one could take theproduct of the contributions. If weighting of the contribution isdesired, this can be done by exponentiation (where the weights would bedifferent from those used above). V_(cv)=πV_(i) ^(wi′)

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 92, is useful inevaluating the document's convenience.

More specifically, the convenience, as illustrated in FIG. 92, isconsidered a combination of consistency, legibility, disability proof,ease of navigation, ease of progression, searchability, locatability,viewable fraction, single window display, and/or transmission andprocessing time. In FIG. 92, the quantized convenience value is derivedby a combining of the consistency, legibility, disability proof, ease ofnavigation, ease of progression, searchability, locatability, viewablefraction, single window display, and/or transmission and processing timeusing a convenience quantizer or combiner circuit 70.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the conveniencequantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

Note that the set of rules chosen is illustrative of how a conveniencemeasure can be constructed. Other factors contributing to ease of useexist and could certainly be included in a more sophisticatedquantification of convenience. The particular methods for evaluatingdocument convenience provided herein are exemplary and are not to beconsidered as limiting in scope.

Other methods for determining the document convenience should beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to differing documentcharacteristics with respect to the feeling of convenience; such thatthe present invention is directed to not only in the particular methodof determining the convenience level, but also in the much broaderconcept of using a combination of individual measures in the context ofevaluating document convenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in graphic designthere are many consistency rules. Consistency helps people build aninternal model of the document that, in turn, makes it easier to use.Some of the contributing rules or factors to consistency and how factorscan be combined into an overall consistency measure will now bedescribed. The example consistency measure will include position order,luminance, size, and/or style. The methods for calculating measures forthese factors have been described above and will not be repeated indetail here.

In combining the component consistency measures assume that any sourceof inconsistency will destroy the overall consistency. A combiningformula that can be used is as follows.V_(nt)=[Σw_(i)(d+V_(i))^(−p)]^(−1/p)−d where the V_(i) are taken fromthe set V_(cp), V_(cl), V_(csz) and V_(cst). The weights w_(i), indicatethe relative importance of the different measures. The parameter p is anumber 1 or larger and d is a value slightly larger than 0.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 94, is useful inevaluating the document's consistency.

More specifically, the consistency, as illustrated in FIG. 94, isconsidered a combination of position order, luminance, size, and/orstyle. In FIG. 94, the quantized consistency value is derived by acombining of the position order, luminance, size, and/or style using aconsistency quantizer or combiner circuit 72.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the consistencyquantization process, this process may also be performed in software bythe microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is not limited tospecific circuits, but any combination of software and/or hardware thatis able to carry out the below described methodologies.

The particular methods for evaluating a measure of the consistency of adocument is provided herein are exemplary and are not to be consideredas limiting in scope. Other methods for determining the documentconsistency level should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todiffering document characteristics with respect to the feeling ofconsistency; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining the consistency level, but also inthe much broader concept of using a combination of individual measuresin the context of evaluating document consistency level, documentconvenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, for position orderthere are actually two measures, consistency of scan and/or consistencyof order, both of which are described above in the discussion onquantifying how well a document communicates. The layout placement ofcontent objects should follow one of these two rules to achieve aconsistent model between logical order and layout position. However, thelayout need not follow both models simultaneously. One should thereforecombine the consistency of scan V_(cs) and the consistency of orderV_(co) into an overall consistency of position V_(cp). A simple way todo this is: V_(cp)=MAXIMUM(V_(cs), V_(co))

A more sophisticated alternative is the following:V_(cp)=dcp−(((dcp−V_(cs))^(−p)+(dcp−V_(co))^(−p))/2)^(−1/p) where dcp isa constant slightly larger than 1 and p is also a number 1 or greater.

A combination of measures, as illustrated in FIG. 93, is useful inevaluating the document's consistency of position.

More specifically, the consistency of position, as illustrated in FIG.93, is considered a combination of consistency of scan and/orconsistency of order. In FIG. 94, the quantized consistency of positionvalue is derived by a combining of the consistency of scan and/orconsistency of order using a consistency of position quantizer orcombiner circuit 71.

It is noted that the illustration shows a circuit for the consistency ofposition quantization process, this process may also be performed insoftware by the microprocessor and/or firmware. The quantization is notlimited to specific circuits, but any combination of software and/orhardware that is able to carry out the below described methodologies.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof position to document consistency level and convenience level providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the contribution from consistency ofposition should be considered within the scope of the present invention,for example, a function of measured human responses to differentpositioning of content objects with respect to the feeling ofconsistency and document convenience level; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the consistency of position contribution, but also in themuch broader concept of using consistency of position measures in thecontext of evaluating document consistency level, document conveniencelevel and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method forcomputing a measure of the consistency of luminance V_(cl) is describedin the above discussion of document comfort. The idea is that darkeritems should precede lighter ones in a group.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof luminance to document consistency level and convenience levelprovided herein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limitingin scope. Other methods for determining the contribution fromconsistency of luminance should be considered within the scope of thepresent invention, for example, a function of measured human responsesto different luminance settings and orderings of content objects withrespect to the feeling of consistency and document convenience level;such that the present invention is directed to not only in theparticular method of determining the consistency of luminancecontribution, but also in the much broader concept of using consistencyof luminance measures in the context of evaluating document consistencylevel, document convenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method forcomputing a measure of the consistency of size V_(csz) is also presentedin the above discussion on document comfort. The idea is that largeritems should precede smaller ones in a group.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof size to document consistency level and convenience level providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the contribution from consistency of sizeshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to different sizes andorderings of content objects with respect to the feeling of consistencyand document convenience level; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining theconsistency of size contribution, but also in the much broader conceptof using consistency of size measures in the context of evaluatingdocument consistency level, document convenience level and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method forcomputing a measure of the consistency of style V_(cst) is presentedabove in the discussion of ease of use of groups. The idea is that itemsat similar positions in the content structure should have matchingstyles.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from the consistencyof style to document consistency level and convenience level providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the contribution from consistency of styleshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to different styles andorderings of content objects with respect to the feeling of consistencyand document convenience level; such that the present invention isdirected to not only in the particular method of determining theconsistency of style contribution, but also in the much broader conceptof using consistency of style measures in the context of evaluatingdocument consistency level, document convenience level and documentquality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a document that isdifficult to read is often difficult to use. A measure of legibilityV_(lg) was defined above as a contributor to a document'scommunicability. It can contribute to convenience as well ascommunicability but with a different weight. In fact, one could arguethat communicability, as a whole, should be used as a contributor toconvenience. While this is not ruled out, the example here will justinclude a few of the components of communicability that have particularbearing on convenience. Considering them separately allows one to givethem different weights when contributing to convenience than those usedfor the contribution to communicability.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from legibility todocument convenience level provided herein are exemplary and are not tobe considered as limiting in scope. Other methods for determining thecontribution from legibility should be considered within the scope ofthe present invention, for example, a function of measured humanresponses to different text characteristics with respect to legibilityand the feeling convenience; such that the present invention is directedto not only in the particular method of determining the legibilitycontribution, but also in the much broader concept of using legibilitymeasures in the context of evaluating document convenience level anddocument quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in general,disability proof refers to how well the document can serve people withhandicaps. For example, a document of only text can be read to someonewho is blind, but a document with images would be much harder to convey.Another example of a contributor to a disability proof measure is thered-green friendliness property that was defined in the above discussionon how well a document communicates. The idea behind the measure is thatthere should be either luminance contrast or blue-yellow contrastbetween foreground and background colors in order to be red-greenfriendly. Without this contrast it would be difficult for a colorblindperson to distinguish foreground object from background. This measurewill be used as an example of a simple disability proof function,V_(dp). Additional functions for other handicaps are certainly possibleand could be combined into a more sophisticated measure.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from disabilitycompensation characteristics to document convenience level providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the contribution from disabilitycompensation should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention, for example, a function of measured human responses todifferent document characteristics with respect to disabilitycompensation and the feeling convenience; such that the presentinvention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the disability compensation contribution, but also in themuch broader concept of using disability compensation measures in thecontext of evaluating document convenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, methods forestimating the ease of navigation V_(en) and ease of progression V_(ep)were also described above in the discussion of how well a documentcommunicates. They contribute to convenience as well as communicability,and, in fact, are more important (and have larger weights) asconvenience measures than as communicability measures. The idea behindthe calculation of these properties is to estimate and combinecontributing features such as distinguishability, group identity,spatial coherence, list bullets, headings, internal links, alignment andothers.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from ease ofnavigation or ease of progression to document convenience level providedherein are exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope.Other methods for determining the contribution from ease of navigationor ease of progression should be considered within the scope of thepresent invention, for example, a function of measured human responsesto different document characteristics with respect to ease of navigationor ease of progression and the feeling convenience; such that thepresent invention is directed to not only in the particular method ofdetermining the ease of navigation or ease of progression contribution,but also in the much broader concept of using ease of navigation or easeof progression measures in the context of evaluating documentconvenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, two other relatedconcepts are the searchability V_(sh) and the locatability V_(lo).Locatability is a measure of how easy it is to find a document object(whereas ease of navigation is how easy it is to find a documentlocation). Searchability is a rougher measure that looks for thepresence of document features that aid in locating document objects.These measures have been described above in the discussion of measuresfor the ease of use of content groups.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from searchability orlocatability to document convenience level provided herein are exemplaryand are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from searchability or locatability shouldbe considered within the scope of the present invention, for example, afunction of measured human responses to different documentcharacteristics with respect to searchability or locatability and thefeeling convenience; such that the present invention is directed to notonly in the particular method of determining the searchability orlocatability contribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingsearchability or locatability measures in the context of evaluatingdocument convenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when a document isbroken into pages, some content groups may get spread over two or morepages. If the document is displayed on a workstation, some entirecontent groups may not fit completely into the display window. Thisinability to view the logical group as a unit can be a hindrance andshould reduce the document's convenience measure.

To estimate the viewable fraction for a group displayed on aworkstation, first find the bounding size (width and height of the group(wg, hg). Next find the size of the typical display window (wp, hp). Theviewable width and height is the minimum of the group and windowdimensions.wv=MINIMUM(wg, wp)hv=MINIMUM(hg, hp)The measure of unity of display for the group is then given by ratio ofthe visible area to group area: U=(wv hv)/(wg hg)

For the case where the group has been split over pages, one canconstruct a measure by first finding the area of the group elements oneach page (e.g. Ag_(p) for page p). Next find the maximum area among thepieces and divide it by the total group area. U=MAXP(Ag_(p))/Σ Ag_(p)

While this provides a measure for any particular group within adocument, one still has to somehow combine these group measures toachieve an overall measure of the document's viewable fraction.Recognize that the level of the group within the documents logical treestructure should make a difference. One would be much less likely toexpect or need high-level groups to be seen as a unit than the low levelgroups near the bottom of the tree. First sort the groups by their treelevel and find a simple average value for each level (i.e. Uav L). Thencombine the average values for the levels weighted by a function of thelevel: V_(vf)=Σ w(L) Uav L/Σ w(L)

The weighting function w(L) should increase with increasing level suchas w(L)=a L for a constant a.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from viewablefraction to document convenience level provided herein are exemplary andare not to be considered as limiting in scope. Other methods fordetermining the contribution from viewable fraction should be consideredwithin the scope of the present invention, for example, a function ofmeasured human responses to different viewable amounts of the documentwith respect to the feeling convenience; such that the present inventionis directed to not only in the particular method of determining theviewable fraction contribution, but also in the much broader concept ofusing viewable fraction measures in the context of evaluating documentconvenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, while the viewablefraction measure gives some indication of whether document componentscan be seen in their entirety, there is a special advantage in beingable to see the entire document in a single window or page. A simplecalculation can be used to create this measure. It is the same as forviewable fraction, only it uses the area of the entire document. If thewidth and height of the document are wd, hd and the width and height ofthe display or page are wp hp, then calculate:wv=MINIMUM(wd, wp)hv=MINIMUM(hd, hp)And set the single window display measure to: V_(swd)=(wv hv)/(wd hd)

FIG. 95 illustrates the generation of an electronic window 150associated with a page 100 of a document. The electronic window 150includes navigation buttons to navigation over the page or through thedocument. This electronic window 150 can be used to define the areas ofthe document to be analyzed by the present invention as well as allowthe user to define what classes and sub-parameters which are to bemeasured and quantized by the present invention.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from single-windowdisplay of the document-to-document convenience level provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from a single window displayshould be considered within the scope of the present invention, forexample, a function of measured human responses to documents that can orcannot be displayed in a single window or page with respect to thefeeling convenience; such that the present invention is directed to notonly in the particular method of determining the single window displaycontribution, but also in the much broader concept of usingsingle-window display measures in the context of evaluating documentconvenience level and document quality.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one of the moreannoying and inconvenient occurrences when obtaining or processing adocument is having to wait while the machine works on downloading ordisplaying it. The transmission time is a product of the size of thedocument file and the bandwidth of the communications channel. Whileprocessing time can also depend upon the types of objects that thedocument contains and on the type of processing being done, a roughestimate can be formed as the product of the file size and a processingspeed factor. One can therefore use the file size as a rough indicatorof these time costs. To convert file size S into a value between 0 and 1one can use the expression: V_(tm)=at/(at+S) where at is a constant thatis about the typical document file size.

The particular methods for evaluating contribution from transmissiontime or processing time to document convenience level provided hereinare exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. Othermethods for determining the contribution from transmission time orprocessing time should be considered within the scope of the presentinvention; such that the present invention is directed to not only inthe particular method of determining the transmission time or processingtime contribution, but also in the much broader concept of using timemeasures in the context of evaluating document convenience level anddocument quality.

Economy

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one other dimensionby which the quality of a document may be judged is by the costs that itincurs. Costs arise in several ways. For printed documents, there is thecost of the materials required (the paper and the ink). There is also acost in the effort required to print the document (labor and presstime). Material cost may not apply to documents viewed on electronicdisplays, but there is the cost to transmit and store the document.There is also the cost in the time the viewer spends waiting while thedocument is transmitted, or while it is being processed for display.Many of these costs depend upon the size of the document (such asdescribed above for transmission and processing time). However, otherproperties can also have an effect. For example, the size of the fontscan affect the amount of paper needed for printing, and the presence ofcolor can affect the cost of the ink.

The above described quality quantization process can be utilized in manysystems. In a preferred embodiment, a system for dynamic document layoutin accordance with embodiments of the present invention, a documentlayout processing system and printers, although the system can compriseother numbers and types of systems, devices, and components in otherconfigurations. The present invention provides a system and method fordynamic document layout that is able to learn new intelligent mutatorsduring operations and is able to determine the most appropriate sequenceof mutators given a document's current characteristics.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the document layoutprocessing system is coupled to the printers, although the documentlayout processing system could be coupled to other types and numbers ofdevices in other configurations. A variety of communication systemsand/or methods can be used to operatively couple and communicate betweenthe document layout processing system and the printers, including adirect connection, a local area network, a wide area network, the worldwide web, modems and phone lines, or wireless communication technologyeach having communications protocols. In these embodiments, the printersare coupled to the document layout processing system by a hard-wireconnection over a local area network, although other types ofconnections, devices, and networks, such as a wireless communicationsystem, could be used.

The document layout processing system includes a processor, a memorystorage device, a user input device, a display device, and aninput/output interface device which are coupled together by a bus orother link, although other types of document layout processing systemscomprising other numbers and types of components in other configurationscan be used. The processor executes a program of stored instructions forone or more aspects of the present invention as described herein.

The memory storage device stores the programmed instructions for one ormore aspects of the present invention as described herein for executionby the processor, although some or all of the programmed instructionscould be stored and/or executed elsewhere, such as in printer(s). Avariety of different types of memory storage devices, such as a randomaccess memory (RAM) or a read only memory (ROM) in the system or afloppy disk, hard disk, CD ROM, or other computer readable medium whichis read from and/or written to by a magnetic, optical, or other readingand/or writing system that is coupled to the processor, could be usedfor memory storage device to store the programmed instructions describedherein, as well as other information.

The user input device enables an operator to generate and transmitsignals or commands to the processor, such as a request to print ordisplay a document on printer(s). A variety of different types of userinput devices could be used for user input device, such as a keyboard orcomputer mouse. The display device displays information for the operatorof the document layout processing system, such as an image of thedocument layout or the status of the print job at a first printer. Avariety of different types of display devices could be used for displaydevice, such as a display monitor. The input/output interface system isused to operatively couple and communicate between the document layoutprocessing system and the printers.

The first printer is coupled to the document layout processing system,although other types of devices can be coupled to the document layoutprocessing system. The first printer prints documents received from thedocument processing system. The first printer has a particular set ofcharacteristics when printing a document which affects the resultingprinted image of the document, such as margins or a particular papersize on which the document is printed. Since the components of aprinter, including its connections and operation, are well known, theywill not be described in detail here.

A second printer is also coupled to the document layout processingsystem, although other types of devices can be coupled to the documentprocessing system. The second printer also prints documents receivedfrom the document processing system. The second printer also has aparticular set of characteristics when printing a document which effectthe resulting printed image of the document which are different from thecharacteristics of the first printer, although both printers could havethe same characteristics when printing a document. Like the firstprinter, the components of the second printer, including theirconnections and operation, are well known, they will not be described indetail here.

The document processing system selects a portion of an originaldocument, although other portions or the entire original document couldbe selected for determining a layout. The portion of the documentselected is the portion that needs re-layout or adjustment. The originaldocument can be obtained in a variety of different manners, such asretrieved from the web, from an e-mail attachment, from another computersystem, or from a document created by the operator.

Next, the document processing system compares one or more elements ofthe selected portion of the original document against the same types ofelements in portions of a plurality of other stored documents obtainedfrom memory storage device, although other types of comparisons of othernumbers and types of elements and other portions could be used. Avariety of different types of elements could be used by the documentprocessing system in this comparison, such as font size, font type,number of lines of text, line spacing, number of alphanumericcharacters, size of an outer perimeter of the arrangement ofalphanumeric characters, and number of images. The document processingsystem can assign a score to each comparison, such as one score for acomplete match, another score for a partial match, and no score whenthere is no match, although other manners for assigning a score can beused.

The document processing system identifies which stored document with theportion which is closest to the portion of the original document basedon the comparison of the selected elements. In these embodiments, thedocument processing system generates a score based on the comparison ofthe elements of the selected portion of the original document againstthe same types of elements in portions of a plurality of other storeddocuments. The document processing system identifies the stored documentwith the portion which is closest to the selected portion of theoriginal document based on the highest generated score, although thedocument processing system could use other ways to identify the storeddocument with the closest portion.

The document processing system obtains the one or more mutators used inthe identified, stored document from memory storage device for possibleuse in the selected portion of the original document. A variety ofdifferent types of mutators could be obtained, such as mutators foradjusting a font of type, adjusting line spacing, adjusting at least onecolor, adjusting a location of at least one section in the portion ofthe original document, increasing font size to increase legibility, andmaking the line lengths shorter to increase legibility, etc. It is notedthat other types of mutators alone or in different combinations could beobtained and used.

The document processing system identifies the device, such asprinter(s), on which the original document is to be displayed. Thedocument processing system identifies the device based on instructionsreceived from an operator using user input device requesting aparticular device to display the original document, although other waysof identifying the display device can be used, such as a programmedselection in the memory storage device of document processing system touse a particular printer for a print job.

As part of the identification process, the document processing systemobtains information from memory storage device about the characteristicsof the device, although other ways of obtaining information about thecharacteristics of the device can be used, such as an inquiry by thedocument processing system to the device, such as printer, for theinformation.

The document processing system determines which of the one or moremutators obtained from the identified, stored document to use on theselected portion of the original document. The document processingsystem determines which of the mutators to use based on thecharacteristics of the device on which the original document is going tobe displayed and based on one or more elements of the original document,although other manners for determining which of the mutators to selectcan be used.

For example, if the first printer selected for the printing job is ablack-and-white printer, a mutator for altering color obtained from theidentified, stored document is irrelevant and would not used by thedocument processing system.

In another example, the document processing system could have lists ofmutators stored in memory which are associated with particular types ofdocuments, such as for text documents, documents with text and images,and documents with images, and then the document processing system woulddetermine to use the obtained mutators that were on appropriate storedlist for the type of document that matches the portion of the originaldocument or the original document.

The document processing system also determines using one or morealgorithms for document layout stored in memory storage device and oneor more other style sheets stored in memory storage device one or moreother mutators to apply to the selected portion of the originaldocument, although other manners for determining which, if any, otherthe mutators to use can be implemented.

The following is a description of a preferred embodiment of thealgorithms and methods used for determining mutators and otherparameters for document layout, which are stored as programmedinstructions for execution by document processing system.

In determining mutators and other parameters for document layout, thedocument is modeled as a constraint optimization problem which combinesboth required constraints with non-required design constraints that actas optimization criteria. One of a set of many existing constraintoptimization algorithms is then used to solve the problem, resulting inan automatically generated document that is well designed because it hasoptimized some specified design criteria.

In particular, a document template is represented as a constraintoptimization problem, and therefore contains a set of variables, a valuedomain for each variable, a set of required constraints, and a set ofdesired constraints (i.e. optimization functions).

The areas of the document to be filled with content are modeled asproblem variables, as are any parameters of the document that can bechanged.

As an example, a template specifies that there are two areas that shouldbe filled with content: areaA and areaB. The template also specifiesthat the positions and sizes of areaA and areaB can be changed. Thus,the problem variables for this example are: areaA, areaB,areaA-topLeftX, areaA-topLeftY, areaB-topLeftX, areaB-topLeftY,areaA-width, areaA-height, areaB-width, and areaB-height.

The constraint optimization formulation further specifies that eachproblem variable has a value domain consisting of the possible values toassign to that variable. For variables that are document areas to befilled with content (e.g., areaA and areaB), the value domains are thecontent pieces that are applicable to each area. For variables that aredocument parameters, the value domains are discretized ranges for thoseparameters, so that each potential value for the parameter appears inthe value domain e.g., 1 . . . MAXINT]. For variables whose valuedomains are content pieces, the default domain is set up to be allpossible content pieces in the associated content database, which isspecified in the document template.

The required constraints specify relationships between variables and/orvalues that must hold in order for the resulting document to be valid.The desired constraints specify relationships between variables and/orvalues that we would like to satisfy, but aren't required in order forthe resulting document to be valid. Constraints may be unary (apply toone value/variable), binary (apply to two values/variables), or n-ary(apply to n values/variables), and in our invention are entered by theuser as part of the document template.

An example of a required unary constraint in the document domain is:areaA must contain an image of a castle. An example of a required binaryconstraint is: areaA-topLeftY+areaA-height<areaB-topLeftY. If we hadanother variable (areaC), an example of a required 3-ary constraint is:areaA-width+areaB-width>areaC-width. In a variable data application ofthis invention (one of many possible applications), the constraintswould also refer to customer attributes (e.g., areaA must contain animage that is appropriate for customer1.age).

Desired constraints are represented as objective functions to maximizeor minimize. For example, a desired binary constraint might be theobjective function: f=areaA-width*areaA-height, to be maximized. If morethan one objective function is defined for the problem, the problembecomes a multi-criteria optimization problem. If it is a multi-criteriaoptimization problem, we sum the individual objective function scores toproduce the overall optimization score for a particular solution. We canfurthermore weight each of the desired constraints with a priority, sothat the overall optimization score then becomes a weighted sum of theindividual objective function scores.

Any one of the known existing constraint optimization algorithms is thenapplied to create the final output document. This invention furtherdescribes a means to use a genetic algorithm (one of the many possibleconstraint optimization algorithms) for doing the constraintoptimization and thereby automatically creating a final output documentthat adheres not only to the required constraints, but also to a set ofdesired constraints.

In the genetic algorithm formulation of constraint optimization fordocument creation, the genome is built such that each gene in the genomeis a variable of the constraint problem. The unary constraints are usedto set up the allowable value domains for each gene. These can be somedefault range, or input by the user.

The fitness function is defined such that it returns a fitness of 0 forany population members that do not meet the required constraints, andfor the members that do meet the required constraints, it returns afitness score that is a sum of the scores of the individual desiredconstraints. For instance, if we have the required constraints:

-   -   C1: areaA-width<300    -   C2: areaB-width<300        And the desired constraints:    -   C3: areaA-width=areaB-width, to be maximized (ranges from 0 to        1)    -   C4: areaA-height=areaB-height, to be maximized (ranges from 0 to        1)        Examples of fitness function for these desired constraints are        f3=1−|areaA-width−areaB-width|/(areaA-width+areaB-width)        f4=1−|areaA-height−areaB-height|/(areaA-width+areaB-height)

If we have a population member with areaA-width=350, areaA-height=350,areaB-width=400, areaB-height=200, the fitness function returns a scoreof 0. If, however, we have a population member with areaA-width=300,areaA-height=200, areaB-width=300, areaB-height=200, the fitnessfunction returns a score of 2. If we have a population member withareaA-width=225, areaA-height=200, areaB-width=300, areaB-height=200,the fitness function returns a score of 1.875.

Our formulation also extends to allow weighting of the various desiredconstraints. Thus, the document creator can specify that certain desiredconstraints are more important than others. For instance, we could haveconstraint C3 weighted with an importance of 1.5, and C4 weighted withan importance of 0.5, meaning that the two objects having the same widthis more important than the two objects having the same height. Thefitness function's overall score is then computed as a weighted sum ofthe individual desired constraints.

For instance, if we have a population member with areaA-width=225,areaA-height=200, areaB-width=300, areaB-height=200, desired constraintC3 returns 0.875, which is multiplied by C3's weight of 1.5, to get1.286. Desired constraint C4 returns 1, which is multiplied by C4'sweight of 0.5, to get 0.5. The overall fitness score is then1.125+0.5=1.786.

If, on the other hand, we have a population member with areaA-width=300,areaA-height=200, areaB-width=300, areaB-height=150, desired constraintC3 returns 1, which is multiplied by C3's weight of 1.5 to get 1.5.Desired constraint C4 returns 0.875, which is multiplied by C4's weightof 0.5, to get 0.438. The overall fitness score is then 1.5+0.438=1.938,thereby preferring the solution that violates C3 the least.

In the genetic algorithm implementation, an initial population ofchromosomes is created by selecting values for each gene, and doing thisfor the desired number of population members. We evaluate each member ofthis population according to the fitness function, resulting in a scorefor each population member. We then select the most fit individuals(i.e., best fitness score) as parents for the new population, and createa new population from the parents using crossover/mutation operations.We iterate through populations until we reach a specified stoppingcondition (e.g., a certain number of iterations are complete, or untilwe have crossed a minimum threshold for the fitness function).

Thus, each genome is evaluated according to how well it satisfies orachieves the design qualities along with the other required constraints.This evaluation results in a generated document that not only satisfiesthe required constraints, but that is also optimized for the specifieddesign qualities.

The document processing system determines an order or sequence forapplying the one or more obtained mutators and the one or moredetermined mutators to the selected portion of the original document. Inthese particular embodiments, the document processing system determinesthe order based on the order the obtained mutators were used in theidentified, stored document, although other manners for determining theorder for applying the mutators could be used.

For example, the ordering may be a learned function based on noting theeffectiveness of orderings on the document quality measure. In anotherexample, the selected order for applying mutators could be based on apredetermined priority order for applying mutators which is stored inmemory. The document processing system would determine where each of theobtained mutators occurred in the stored priority order and then wouldbase the order of applying the mutators based on this determination.

The document processing system applies the selected one or more obtainedmutators and the one or more determined mutators in the determinedordered order to the selected portion of the original document.

The document processing system stores the selected portion of theoriginal document with the applied mutators as one of the storeddocuments in memory storage device. The newly stored portion of theoriginal document can now be used to assist with determining the layoutof other portions of the original document or of other documents to bedisplayed.

The document processing system determines if another portion of theoriginal document should be selected for determining a dynamic documentlayout. If one or more additional portions in the original document aredesired to be selected, for example if other portions of the originaldocument have not already been selected, the process for determining adynamic document layout begins again for the newly selected portion ofthe original document in the same manner as described above. If no moreportions in the original document are desired to be selected, forexample if the entire original document was selected for processing orall of the portions of the original document have already been selected,the process for determining a dynamic document layout ends.

In this preferred embodiment, although a case-based approach is providedto apply mutators to a document to obtain a desirable document layout,the concepts of the present invention can also continuously store thedetermined layouts for use in determining the layout of futuredocuments. By combining case-based mutators with genetic algorithms fordynamic document layout, a more efficient and reliable automated schemefor dynamic document layout is realized.

Accordingly, while the present invention has been described withreference to various embodiments as described above, it is not confinedto the details set forth above, but is intended to cover suchmodifications or changes as may come within the scope of the attachedclaims.

1. A method for quantifying a measure of quality of a document,comprising: (a) measuring a group identity of objects in the document;and (b) quantizing the measured group identity of objects in thedocument.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantizedgroup identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring andquantizing visibility of objects in the document.
 3. The method asclaimed in claim 1 wherein the quantized group identity of objects inthe document is realized by measuring and quantizing a spatial coherenceof objects in the document.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized bymeasuring and quantizing a consistency of style of objects in thedocument.
 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantizedgroup identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring andquantizing a structural identity of objects in the document.
 6. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity ofobjects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing ahorizontal alignment of objects in the document.
 7. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects inthe document is realized by measuring and quantizing a verticalalignment of objects in the document.
 8. The method as claimed in claim1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document isrealized by measuring and quantizing a use of headings in the document.9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized groupidentity of objects in the document is realized by measuring andquantizing a use of background in the document.
 10. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects inthe document is realized by measuring and quantizing a use of borders inthe document.
 11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein thequantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by: (i)measuring and quantizing visibility of objects in the document; (ii)measuring and quantizing a spatial coherence of objects in the document;(iii) measuring and quantizing a consistency of style of objects in thedocument; (iv) measuring and quantizing a structural identity of objectsin the document; (v) measuring and quantizing a horizontal alignment ofobjects in the document; (vi) measuring and quantizing a verticalalignment of objects in the document; (vii) measuring and quantizing ause of headings in the document; (viii) measuring and quantizing a useof background in the document; and (ix) measuring and quantizing a useof borders in the document.
 12. A method for quantifying a measure ofquality of a document, comprising: (a) measuring a predetermined set ofsubcharacteristics of the document; (b) quantizing the measuredpredetermined set of subcharacteristics of the document; and (c)generating a quantized group identity of objects in the document valuefor the document based on a predetermined combining function, thepredetermined combining function combining the quantized measuredpredetermined set of subcharacteristics, the quantized group identity ofobjects in the document value being a measure of quality of thedocument.
 13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein thepredetermined combining function is a weighted average of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of subcharacteristics.
 14. The method asclaimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined combining function is aweighted sum of the quantized measured predetermined set ofsubcharacteristics.
 15. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein thepredetermined combining function is a weighted product of the quantizedmeasured predetermined set of subcharacteristics.
 16. The method asclaimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined combining function is anon-linear operation performed upon the quantized measured predeterminedset of subcharacteristics.
 17. A method for quantifying a measure ofquality of a document, comprising: (a) measuring a separability ofobjects in the document; and (b) quantizing the measured separability ofobjects in the document.
 18. The method as claimed in claim 17, whereinthe quantized separability of objects in the document is realized bymeasuring and quantizing a spatial separability of objects in thedocument.
 19. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the quantizedseparability of objects in the document is realized by measuring andquantizing an alignment separability of objects in the document.
 20. Themethod as claimed in claim 17, wherein the quantized separability ofobjects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a styleseparability of objects in the document.